North American fraternity and sorority housing refers largely to the houses or housing areas in which fraternity and sorority members live and work together. In addition to serving as housing, fraternity and sorority housing may also serve to host social gatherings, meetings, and functions that benefit the community.
Sigma Chi (ΣΧ) International Fraternity is one of the largest of North American social fraternities. The fraternity has 244 active undergraduate chapters and 152 alumni chapters across the United States and Canada and has initiated over 350,000 members. The fraternity was founded on June 28, 1855, at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, by members who split from the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity.
The North American Interfraternity Conference is an association of intercollegiate men's social fraternities that was formally organized in 1910, although it began at a meeting at the University Club of New York on November 27, 1909. The power of the organization rests in a House of Delegates in which each member fraternity is represented by a single delegate. However, the group's executive and administrative powers are vested in an elected board of directors consisting of nine volunteers from various NIC fraternities. Headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, the NIC has a small professional staff.
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.
Phi Delta Theta (ΦΔΘ), commonly known as Phi Delt, is an international secret and social fraternity founded at Miami University in 1848 and headquartered in Oxford, Ohio. Phi Delta Theta, along with Beta Theta Pi and Sigma Chi form the Miami Triad. The fraternity has over 190 active chapters and colonies in over 43 U.S. states and five Canadian provinces and has initiated more than 277,000 men between 1848 and 2021. There are over 160,000 living alumni. Phi Delta Theta chartered house corporations own more than 135 houses valued at over $141 million as of summer 2015. There are nearly 100 recognized alumni clubs across the U.S. and Canada.
Thomas Cowan Bell was an American college president, educator, newspaper publisher, and Civil War veteran. He is best known for being one of the founders of Sigma Chi fraternity.
Delta Zeta is an international college sorority founded on October 24, 1902, at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.
Delta Phi (ΔΦ) is a fraternity founded in 1827 at Union College in Schenectady, New York consisting of ten active chapters along the East Coast of the United States. The fraternity also uses the names "St. Elmo," "St. Elmo Hall," or merely "Elmo" because of its relation to Erasmus of Formia with some chapters known almost exclusively by one of these names on their respective campuses. Delta Phi was, after the Kappa Alpha Society and Sigma Phi Society, the third and last member of the Union Triad.
Professional fraternities, in the North American fraternity system, are organizations whose primary purpose is to promote the interests of a particular profession and whose membership is restricted to students in that particular field of professional education or study. This may be contrasted with service fraternities and sororities, whose primary purpose is community service, and social fraternities and sororities, whose primary purposes are generally aimed towards some other aspect, such as the development of character, friendship, leadership, or literary ability.
Kappa Delta was the first sorority founded at the State Female Normal School, in Farmville, Virginia.
Lambda Kappa Sigma is an international pharmacy fraternity headquartered in Muskego, Wisconsin. Founded in 1913, it t was created to promote the profession of pharmacy among women and advance women within the profession. LKS is the oldest and largest professional pharmacy fraternity for women in the world. Lambda Kappa Sigma has initiated more than 30,000 members and has 45 chartered chapters. It also has 36 chartered alumni groups internationally.
Phi Chi Theta is one of the largest co-ed professional business fraternities in the United States. Phi Chi Theta was founded as a women's business fraternity on June 16, 1924, in Chicago, Illinois. Today, Phi Chi Theta comprises 41 collegiate and alumni chapters across the United States. While most chapters are now co-ed, there are some which have only women as members.
Kappa Sigma (ΚΣ), commonly known as Kappa Sig or KSig, is an American collegiate social fraternity founded at the University of Virginia in 1869. Kappa Sigma is one of the five largest international fraternities with currently 318 active chapters and colonies in North America. Its endowment fund, founded in 1919, has donated more than $5 million to undergrads since 1948. In 2012 alone, the Fraternity's endowment fund raised over $1 million in donations.
The expansion of Greek letter organizations into Canada was an important stage of the North American fraternity movement, beginning in 1879 with the establishment of a chapter of Zeta Psi at the University of Toronto. In 1883, the same fraternity established a chapter at McGill University. Other early foundations were Kappa Alpha Society at Toronto in 1892 and at McGill in 1899, and Alpha Delta Phi at Toronto in 1893 and at McGill in 1897. The first sorority, Kappa Alpha Theta, was established in Toronto in 1887. In 1902, the first international chapter of Phi Delta Theta was established at McGill University as the Quebec Alpha.
Delta Kappa Fraternity (ΔΚ) was an American national fraternity that existed from 1920 to 1964. It survives today with two local chapters in New York state.
Fraternities and sororities 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
