Nonsectarian institutions are secular institutions or other organizations not affiliated with or restricted to a particular religious group. [1] [2]
The examples and perspective in this section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject.(December 2017) |
Many North American universities identify themselves as being nonsectarian, such as Boston University, Cornell University, and Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Some private primary and secondary schools in the United States also self-identify as being nonsectarian, such asGermantown Academy in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, the oldest nonsectarian school in the United States. [3] [ citation needed ]
Pi Lambda Phi is a college social fraternity founded by Frederick Manfred Werner, Louis Samter Levy, and Henry Mark Fisher at Yale University in 1895. It was founded as the first nonsectarian fraternity, "a fraternity in which all men were brothers, no matter what their religion; a fraternity in which ability, open-mindedness, farsightedness, and a progressive, forward-looking attitude would be recognized as the basic attributes." [4] The first collegiate nonsectarian sorority to welcome women of all faiths and backgrounds was Phi Sigma Sigma. Founded by ten women on November 26, 1913, at Hunter College in New York, Phi Sigma Sigma now has chapters across the United States and Canada. Delta Phi Epsilon sorority, founded in 1917, was the first nonsectarian social sorority founded at a professional school. [5]
An 1956 amendment to the Constitution of Virginia allowed for tuition grants to be paid by the state to nonsectarian private schools. [6] Blaine amendments to thirty-eight state constitutions forbid direct government aid to educational institutions with a religious affiliation. The typical wording, "religious sects or denominations," is most often used to challenge support to Catholic parochial schools (38% of private school attendance); Protestant schools with an undifferentiated "Christian" often get a pass. [7] These schools often claim both "nonsectarian" and "Christian" in their promotional materials. The United States Department of Education differentiates Christian from Conservative Christian in its analyses. [8]
Organizations that are explicitly nonsectarian include the Apex Clubs of Australia, those participating in the Ethical Culture Movement, the National Jewish Medical and Research Center, and the Tibetan Buddhist Center of Philadelphia.
In Northern Ireland, nonsectarian refers to groups identifying themselves as neither Republican or Unionist, such as the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, Green Party Northern Ireland, People Before Profit or the Police Service of Northern Ireland.
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.
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.
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.
Alpha Delta Gamma (ΑΔΓ), commonly known as ADG, is an American Greek-letter Catholic social fraternity and one of 75 members of the North American Interfraternity Conference (NIC). Based on Christian principles and the traditions of the Jesuit Order of the Catholic Church, Alpha Delta Gamma was founded at Loyola University Chicago on October 10, 1924, as a response to the unwillingness of most national fraternities to colonize at Catholic colleges and universities.
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.
Cultural interest fraternities and sororities, in the North American student fraternity and sorority system, refer to general, social organizations oriented to students having a special interest in a culture or cultural identity.
Phi Sigma Sigma (ΦΣΣ), colloquially known as Phi Sig, was the first collegiate nonsectarian sorority to allow membership of women of all faiths and backgrounds.
Sigma Theta Epsilon (ΣΘΕ) was an American interdenominational national Christian fraternal organization that operated from 1925 to 2022. It had 47 chapters across the United States.
Delta Phi Epsilon is an international sorority founded on March 17, 1917 at New York University Law School in Manhattan. It is one of 26 social sororities that form the National Panhellenic Conference (NPC). It has 110 active chapters, three of which are located in Canada, making the sorority an international organization.
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 Professional Fraternity Association (PFA) is an American association of national, collegiate, professional fraternities and sororities that was formed in 1978. Since PFA groups are discipline-specific, members join while pursuing graduate degrees as well as undergraduate degrees. PFA groups seek to develop their members professionally in addition to the social development commonly associated with Panhellenic fraternities. Membership requirements of the PFA are broad enough to include groups that do not recruit new members from a single professional discipline. The PFA has welcomed service and honor fraternities as members; however, Greek letter honor societies more commonly belong to the Association of College Honor Societies.
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.
This article describes smaller collegiate sororities created in the nineteenth century and early to middle twentieth century on campuses in the United States and Canada. These sororities are defunct. Individual chapters may have affiliated with National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) sororities.
Omega Epsilon Sigma (ΩΕΣ) was a collegiate sorority operating in the United States from 1925 until, approximately, 1930. It is the second known organization for college women with Order of the Eastern Star affiliation, the first being Achoth.
The National APIDA Panhellenic Association (NAPA) is an umbrella council for twenty Asian, Pacific Islander, and Desi American fraternities and sororities in universities in the United States.
Affiliated religious schools belong to associations of schools with a specific religious orientation other than Catholic or conservative Christian. Unaffiliated religious schools have a religious orientation or purpose but are not considered Catholic, conservative Christian, or affiliated religious. Nonsectarian schools do not have a religious orientation or purpose.