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A fracket is a disposable outerwear that can be ditched at a party. [1] The term was coined by American college students to describe an inexpensive jacket or sweatshirt that is used with the sole purpose of attending a fraternity party to keep warm but may get lost. [2] [3] [4]
The term "fracket" may have originated at Pennsylvania State University. [5] In their study of university campus parties, sociologists Ashley Mears and Heather Mooney noted that the need for frackets arose from the lack of coat rooms at fraternity and final club houses. [6] The difficulty of keeping track of one's jacket while attending a fraternity party, paired with the need to stay warm to and from the event, led to concept of frackets. [1] The term fracket is a portmanteau of "frat jacket," with "fraternity" and "jacket" as root words. [7] [2]
What sets a fracket apart from a jacket is its owner's voluntary suspension of the expectation that the jacket will remain in their custody. The practice essentially allows for the situational social acceptance of theft under the pretense that the property was expected by the original owner to be stolen. [8] [9] [3] As a result, wearers do not store anything valuable in their fracket's pockets when they take it off. [5]
Two characteristics of the fracket are that it is inexpensive and distinctive. [7] Mear and Mooney noted the care put into the selection of frackets, as well as the evaluation of potential organizational members based on this selection. [6] In 2023, CNET included a fracket on its list of ten wardrobe essentials to pack for college. [10]
In 2014, University of Pennsylvania students Caroline Calle and Melissa Greenblatt created FRACKIT, a company that manufactured and sold waterproof hooded jackets. [11] [12] The company's name was deried from the fracket. [12] Calle and Greenblatt were members of the Delta Delta Delta at the University of Pennsylvania. [12]
Author Anna Caritj mentions a fracket in her 2022 novel, Leda and the Swan. [13]
Delta Kappa Epsilon (ΔΚΕ), commonly known as DKE or Deke, is one of the oldest fraternities in the United States, with fifty-six active chapters and five active colonies across North America. It was founded at Yale College in 1844 by fifteen sophomores who were discontented with the existing fraternity order on campus. The men established a fellowship where the candidate most favored was "he who combined in the most equal proportions the Gentleman, the Scholar, and the Jolly Good Fellow."
Delta Sigma Phi (ΔΣΦ), commonly known as Delta Sig, is a fraternity established in 1899 at The City College of New York (CCNY). It was the first fraternity to be founded based on religious and ethnic acceptance. It is also one of three fraternities founded at CCNY.
Sigma Nu (ΣΝ) is an undergraduate college fraternity founded at the Virginia Military Institute in 1869. Since its founding, Sigma Nu has chartered more than 279 chapters across the United States and Canada and has initiated more than 235,000 members. It is part of the Lexington Triad, a trio of national fraternities that were founded at colleges in Lexington, Virginia.
Pi Kappa Alpha (ΠΚΑ), commonly known as Pike or Pi Kap, is a college fraternity founded at the University of Virginia in 1868. The fraternity has over 225 chapters and provisional chapters across the United States and abroad with over 15,500 undergraduate members and over 300,000 lifetime initiates.
Phi Kappa Tau (ΦΚΤ), commonly known as Phi Tau, is a collegiate fraternity located in the United States. The fraternity was founded in 1906. As of May 2024, the fraternity has 161 chartered chapters, 83 active chapters, 7 associate chapters, and about 3,900 collegiate members. SeriousFun Children's Network, founded by Beta chapter alumnus Paul Newman, is Phi Kappa Tau's National Philanthropy. According to its Constitution, Phi Kappa Tau is one of the few social fraternities that accepts both graduate students and undergraduates.
Dartmouth College is host to many fraternities and sororities, and a significant percentage of the undergraduate student body is active in Greek life. In 2005, the school stated that 1,785 students were members of a fraternity, sorority, or gender-inclusive Greek house, comprising about 43 percent of all students, or about 60 percent of the eligible student body. Greek organizations at Dartmouth provide both social and residential opportunities for students and are the only single-sex residential option on campus. Greek organizations at Dartmouth do not provide dining options, as regular meal service has been banned in Greek houses since 1909.
Delta Tau Delta (ΔΤΔ) is a United States-based international Greek letter college fraternity. Delta Tau Delta was founded at Bethany College, Bethany, Virginia, in 1858. The fraternity currently has around 130 collegiate chapters and colonies nationwide, with an estimated 10,000 undergraduate members and over 170,000-lifetime members. Delta Tau Delta is informally referred to as "DTD" or "Delts."
St. Anthony Hall or the Fraternity of Delta Psi is an American fraternity and literary society. Its first chapter was founded at Columbia University on January 17, 1847, the feast day of Saint Anthony the Great. The fraternity is a non–religious, nonsectarian organization. In 1879, William Raimond Baird's American College Fraternities characterized the fraternity as having "the reputation of being the most secret of all the college societies." A 2015 writer for Vanity Fair says the fraternity is "a cross between Skull and Bones and a Princeton eating club, with a large heaping of Society and more than a dash of Animal House." Nearly all chapters of St. Anthony Hall are coed.
Phi Gamma Delta (ΦΓΔ), commonly known as Fiji, is a social fraternity with 139 active chapters and 13 colonies across the United States and Canada. It was founded at Jefferson College, Pennsylvania, in 1848. Along with Phi Kappa Psi, Phi Gamma Delta forms a half of the Jefferson Duo. Since its founding, the fraternity has initiated more than 211,000 brothers. The nickname FIJI is used commonly by the fraternity due to Phi Gamma Delta bylaws limiting the use of the Greek letters.
Theta Delta Chi (ΘΔΧ) is a social fraternity that was founded in 1847 at Union College, New York, United States. While nicknames differ from institution to institution, the most common nicknames for the fraternity are TDX, TDC, Thete, Theta Delt, and Thumpers. Theta Delta Chi brothers refer to their local organizations as charges rather than using the common fraternity nomenclature of chapters.
The Mother of Fraternities usually refers to Union College or Miami University, both of which founded many early collegiate fraternities.
Beer pong is a drinking game loosely based on ping pong that involves the use of paddles to hit a ping pong ball into cups on the opposing side. The origin of beer pong is generally credited to Dartmouth College.
Sigma Phi Epsilon (ΣΦΕ), commonly known as SigEp, is a social college fraternity for male college students in the United States. It was founded on November 1, 1901, at Richmond College, which is now the University of Richmond, and its national headquarters remains in Richmond, Virginia. It was founded on three principles: Virtue, Diligence, and Brotherly Love. Sigma Phi Epsilon is one of the largest social fraternities in the United States in terms of current undergraduate membership.
Delta Sigma Chi (ΔΣΧ) is an American fraternal organization for professionals in the area of Chiropractic.
In North America, fraternities and sororities are social organizations at colleges and universities. They are sometimes collectively referred to as Greek life. Generally, membership in a fraternity or sorority is obtained as an undergraduate student but continues thereafter for life. Some accept graduate students as well. Individual fraternities and sororities vary in organization and purpose, but most share five common elements:
The Penn State fraternity hazing scandal is an ongoing issue within the Greek life system at Pennsylvania State University. The scandal encompasses hazing, binge drinking, and secretive ritualistic behavior.
Bones Gate ("BG") is a local fraternal organization at Dartmouth College, an Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Originally founded in 1901 as the Gamma Gamma chapter of Delta Tau Delta, the fraternity disassociated from the national organization in 1960 and went unnamed until 1962 when it became Bones Gate—the name of a pub frequented by some of its members while studying abroad in England.