Pi Kappa Alpha (ΠΚΑ), commonly known as PIKE, 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 January 2024, the fraternity has 161 chartered chapters, 81 active chapters, 7 associate chapters, and about 3,500 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.
Old School is a 2003 American comedy film directed and co-written by Todd Phillips. The film stars Luke Wilson, Vince Vaughn, and Will Ferrell as depressed men in their thirties who seek to relive their college days by starting a fraternity, and the tribulations they encounter in doing so. The film was released on February 21, 2003, received mixed reviews from critics, and grossed $87 million worldwide.
Muhlenberg College is a private liberal arts college in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1848, Muhlenberg College is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and is named for Henry Muhlenberg, the German patriarch of Lutheranism in the United States.
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."
Sigma Alpha Epsilon (ΣΑΕ) is a North American Greek-letter social college fraternity. It was founded at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on March 9, 1856. Of all existing national social fraternities today, Sigma Alpha Epsilon is the only one founded in the Antebellum South. Its national headquarters, the Levere Memorial Temple, was established on the campus of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, in 1926. The fraternity's mission statement is "To promote the highest standards of friendship, scholarship and service for our members throughout life."
Zeta Beta Tau (ΖΒΤ) is a Greek-letter social fraternity based in North America. It was founded on December 29, 1898. Originally a Zionist youth society, its purpose changed from the Zionism of the fraternity's early years when, in 1954, the fraternity became non-sectarian and open to non-Jewish members, changing its membership policy to include "All Men of Good Character" regardless of religious or ethnic background, while still being recognized as the first Jewish Fraternity.
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. (ΑΦΑ) is the oldest intercollegiate historically African American fraternity. It was initially a literary and social studies club organized in the 1905–1906 school year at Cornell University but later evolved into a fraternity with a founding date of December 4, 1906. It employs an icon from Ancient Egypt, the Great Sphinx of Giza, as its symbol. Its aims are "Manly Deeds, Scholarship, and Love For All Mankind," and its motto is "First of All, Servants of All, We Shall Transcend All." Its archives are preserved at the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center.
Kappa Alpha Order (ΚΑ), commonly known as Kappa Alpha or simply KA, is a social fraternity and a fraternal order founded in 1865 at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. As of December 2015, the Kappa Alpha Order lists 133 active chapters, five provisional chapters, and 52 suspended chapters. Along with Alpha Tau Omega and Sigma Nu, the order constitutes the Lexington Triad. Since its establishment in 1865, the Order has initiated more than 150,000 members.
Tau Gamma Phi (ΤΓΦ), also known as Triskelions’ Grand Fraternity, is a fraternity established in the Philippines. Its members call themselves Triskelions.
The Brotherhood is a 2001 horror film directed by David DeCoteau and starring Samuel Page, Josh Hammond and Bradley Stryker. It is the first in the Brotherhood series of homoerotic horror films. The series goes by the title I've Been Watching You in the United Kingdom.
Tau Kappa Epsilon (ΤΚΕ), commonly known as ΤΚΕ or Teke, is a social college fraternity founded on January 10, 1899, at Illinois Wesleyan University. The organization has chapters throughout the United States and Canada, making the Fraternity an international organization. Since its founding in 1899, Tau Kappa Epsilon Fraternity has never had an exclusionary or discriminatory clause to prevent individuals from joining and has instead admitted members based on their "personal worth and character". As of fall 2023, there are 221 active ΤΚΕ chapters and colonies with over 298,000-lifetime members.
Alpha Tau Omega (ΑΤΩ), commonly known as ATO, is an American social fraternity founded at the Virginia Military Institute in 1865 by Otis Allan Glazebrook. The fraternity has around 250 active and inactive chapters and colonies in the United States and has initiated more than 229,000 members. VMI Cadets are no longer associated with the fraternity. In 1885, the VMI Board of Visitors ruled that cadets could no longer join fraternities based on the belief that allegiance to a fraternal group undermined the cohesiveness of and loyalty to the Corps of Cadets.
The Alpha Phi Omega International Philippines Incorporated Service Fraternity and Sorority, commonly known as Alpha Phi Omega or APO (ΑΦΩ), is a service fraternity and sorority in the Philippines founded in 1950. It is the first established national chapter of Alpha Phi Omega outside of the United States, although both organizations have separate leaderships and operate independently. Alpha Phi Omega has 250 chapters in the Philippines and 150,000 members as of 2010.
Omega Gamma Delta (ΩΓΔ) is an American national high school fraternity founded in Brooklyn, New York in 1902. It is the oldest surviving high school fraternity in the United States. In the 2010s, it was recast as "a fraternity for men" with a focus on citywide alumni and graduate clubs.
The Alpha Kappa Rho International Fraternity and Sorority is a fraternity established in the Philippines in 1973. The fraternity, comprising men and women from different universities, was originally established to promote loyalty, unity and integrity in the fraternity amongst its members. It is registered as an International Humanitarian Service Fraternity and Sorority which encourages members to be involved in humanitarian projects and service but has been noted for a number of controversies including numerous allegations of inter-fraternity violence, violent hazing of prospective members and sexual assault of underage girls.
Fraternities and sororities, collectively referred to as Greek Life, are social organizations at North American colleges and universities. 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:
- Secrecy
- Single-sex membership
- Selection of new members on the basis of a two-part vetting and probationary process known as rushing and pledging
- Ownership and occupancy of a residential property where undergraduate members live
- A set of complex identification symbols that may include Greek letters, armorial achievements, ciphers, badges, grips, hand signs, passwords, flowers, and colors
