KSV (Dutch: Katholieke Studenten Vereniging, English: Catholic Student Society) Sanctus Virgilius (also known as Virgiel) is the largest student fraternity/sorority in Delft, named after the Irish born astronomer, geometer and bishop Saint Virgil. There are about 2000 student members (mostly students at TU Delft) who gather together on a daily or weekly basis at an old monastery named Alcuin in the city centre of Delft.
A wide variety of sports and cultural events are organized by members of Virgiel, including football, field hockey, rugby and climbing.
Virgiel was created in 1898 as the result of emancipation of the Catholic youth in the Netherlands. Catholicism had long been repressed by government policy, and Delft Catholic students wanted to unite to discuss their faith and position in society. At the time, most members also belonged to the Delftsch Studenten Corps[nl], the oldest student fraternity/sorority in town.
After the Second World War, Virgiel quickly grew. In the 1960s it quickly lost much of its religious objective. Virgiel is now a non-faith-based fraternity/sorority, which is primarily aimed at having a good time while also expanding knowledge and views outside class-hours.
The Delft University of Technology is the oldest and largest Dutch public technical university, located in Delft, The Netherlands. It specializes in engineering, technology, computing, design, and natural sciences.
A student society, student association, university society, student club, university club, or student organization is a society or an organization, operated by students at a university, college, or other educational institution, whose membership typically consists only of students and/or alumni.
Studentenverbindung or studentische Korporation is the umbrella term for many different kinds of fraternity-type associations in German-speaking countries, including Corps, Burschenschaften, Landsmannschaften, Turnerschaften, and Catholic fraternities. Worldwide, there are over 1,600 Studentenverbindungen, about a thousand in Germany, with a total of over 190,000 members. In them, students spend their university years in an organized community, whose members stay connected even after graduation. A goal of this lifelong bond is to create contacts and friendships over many generations and to facilitate networking. The Lebensbund is very important for the longevity of these networks.
Pi Beta Phi (ΠΒΦ), often known simply as Pi Phi, is an international women's fraternity founded at Monmouth College, in Monmouth, Illinois on April 28, 1867, as I. C. Sorosis, the first national secret college society of women to be modeled after the men's Greek-letter fraternity.
Dartmouth College is host to many fraternities and sororities, and a significant percentage of the undergraduate student body is active in Greek life. In the fall of 2022, 35 percent of male students belong to a fraternity and 36 percent of students belong to a sorority. 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.
The Mensenvereniging Wolbodo was founded in 1959 as the PSK by 17 students, who were Catholic, but did not want to join the Catholic student society Virgiel. In 1960 the name was changed to Sanctus Wolbodo or in Dutch "Sint Wolbodo", referring both to the saint who supposedly is the patron saint of students and to its Catholic nature.
Theta Phi Alpha (ΘΦΑ), commonly known as Theta Phi, is a women's fraternity founded at the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor on August 30, 1912. Theta Phi Alpha is one of 26 national sororities recognized in the National Panhellenic Conference. Today, Theta Phi Alpha has 54 active chapters across the United States. Theta Phi has alumnae clubs and associations in almost every major city. The organization is involved in the philanthropies Glenmary Home Missioners and The House that Theta Phi Alpha Built which help the homeless and underprivileged, specifically in the Appalachian Mountain region, and Camp Friendship, a summer camp in northeast Mississippi for children from disadvantaged and low-income homes.
Katholische Academische Verbindung (K.A.V.) Lovania Leuven is a Catholic academic fraternity, founded in 1896 at the Catholic University of Louvain in Leuven, Belgium. It is a German Studentenverbindung and is an affiliated member of the Cartellverband der katholischen deutschen Studentenverbindungen. Its motto is Semper Excelsius!. Its official colors (Couleur) are green, white and red.
While the traditional social fraternity is a well-established mainstay across the United States at institutions of higher learning, alternatives – in the form of social fraternities that require doctrinal and behavioral conformity to the Christian faith – developed in the early 20th century. They continue to grow in size and popularity.
Delta Phi Epsilon (ΔΦΕ) or Delta Phi Epsilon Foreign Service Council the largest national American professional foreign service fraternity and sorority. Founded on January 25, 1920, it was the first fraternity dedicated to careers in foreign diplomacy in trade. Its Alpha chapter went on in the first half of the twentieth century to colonize new chapters at many other universities throughout the country, although most chapters went defunct in the latter half of the century. In 1973 Delta Phi Epsilon Foreign Service Sorority was founded, with its Alpha chapter at Georgetown University. As of 2021, there remained ten active collegiate chapters, half of which were created between 2016 and 2018.
While most of the traditional women's fraternities or sororities were founded decades before the start of the 20th century, the first ever specifically Christian-themed Greek Letter Organization formed was the Kappa Phi Club, founded in Kansas in 1916. Kappa Phi was a women's sisterhood that developed out of a bible study and remains one of the largest nationally present Christian women's collegiate clubs today. Later organizations added more defined social programming along with a Christian emphasis, bridging the gap between non-secular traditional sororities and church-sponsored bible study groups, campus ministries and sect-based clubs and study groups.
The North American fraternity and sorority system began with students who wanted to meet secretly, usually for discussions and debates not thought appropriate by the faculty of their schools. Today they are used as social, professional, and honorary groups that promote varied combinations of community service, leadership, and academic achievement.
The term Triad is used to designate certain historic groupings of seminal college fraternities in North America.
A fraternity or fraternal organization is an organization, society, club or fraternal order traditionally of men but also women associated together for various religious or secular aims. Fraternity in the Western concept developed in the Christian context, notably with the religious orders in the Catholic Church during the Middle Ages. The concept was eventually further extended with medieval confraternities and guilds. In the early modern era, these were followed by fraternal orders such as Freemasons, the Rosicrucian Society of England, and Odd Fellows, along with gentlemen's clubs, student fraternities, and fraternal service organizations. Members are occasionally referred to as a brother or – usually in a religious context – frater or friar.
Fraternities and sororities at the University of Virginia include the collegiate organizations on the grounds of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. First founded in the 1850s with the establishment of several fraternities, the system has since expanded to include sororities, professional organizations, service fraternities, honor fraternities, and cultural organizations. Fraternities and sororities have been significant to the history of the University of Virginia, including the founding of two national fraternities Kappa Sigma (ΚΣ) and Pi Kappa Alpha (ΠΚΑ).
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:
Secrecy
Single-sex membership
Selection of new members based on 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
Reuzegom was a Flemish fraternity at KU Leuven, part of the Antwerp Guild of student societies. It is known for a 2013 case of animal abuse and a 2018 case of psychological and physical abuse of three recruits that resulted in the death of one and the dissolution of the fraternity.
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