Institutions with national sororities

[oldu]

By my count there are now a total of approximately 765 institutions of higher learning that have functioning systems of national sororities on campus. I find that pretty amazing! I have done a decade by decade list which pretty much tells the history of sororities. The losses during the early years represents a tightening up of the rules, eliminating chapters at institutions not fully at college level. In later years it is surprising that many of the losses were the institutions closing, not the removal of a Greek system. The gains during the 1920s show how popular sorority life became at that time. The frenzied pace during the latter part of the twentieth century reflects a repositioning of sorority administrator attitudes, and the need to find chapters to replace the many lost at the older Greek systems.

The first column of numbers represents the number of institutions in which national sororities were introduced (or re-introduced from previous closures). The second column reflects the number of schools where national sororities ceased to exist.

1868-1880 35 added, 8 lost, net gain of 27
1881-1890 35 added, 21 lost, net gain of 14
1891-1900 24 added, 3 lost, net gain of 21
1901-1910 60 added, 25 lost, net gain of 35
1911-1920 45 added, 6 lost, net gain of 39
1921-1930 75 added, 5 lost, net gain of 70
1931-1940 48 added, 3 lost, net gain of 45
1941-1950 65 added, 7 lost, net gain of 58
1951-1960 63 added, 10 lost, net gain of 53
1961-1970 120 added, 6 lost, net gain of 114
1971-1980 124 added, 18 lost, net gain of 106
1981-1990 122 added, 18 lost, net gain of 104
1991-2000 74 added, 12 lost, net gain of 62
2001-2008 26 added, 8 lost, net gain of 18

In addition to the above there are several institutions where there is a minor Greek presence via multi-school chapters of NPHC or multi-cultural groups, but not representative or recognized enough to be called a functioning Greek system. Plus, there are additional schools on which there are local groups functioning as sororities, societies or social clubs.

I am going to do an accompanying thread which lists the national sororities that were the first group organized on the above campuses.