A club is an association of people united by a common interest or goal. A service club, for example, exists for voluntary or charitable activities. There are clubs devoted to hobbies and sports, social activities clubs, political and religious clubs, and so forth.
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.
Clarkson University is a private research university with its main campus in Potsdam, New York. Clarkson has additional graduate program and research facilities in the New York Capital District. It was founded in 1896 and has an enrollment of about 4,600 students studying toward bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in each of its schools or institutes: the Institute for a Sustainable Environment, the School of Arts & Sciences, the David D. Reh School of Business, the Wallace H. Coulter School of Engineering, and the Earl R. and Barbara D. Lewis School of Health Sciences. The university is classified as an R2 research institution.
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.
Lambda Theta Phi Latin Fraternity, Inc. (ΛΘΦ) is a Latino non-profit social fraternity in the United States with 148 undergraduate chapters and 29 alumni associations.
FarmHouse (FH) is a men's social fraternity founded at the University of Missouri on April 15, 1905. It became a national organization in 1921. Today FarmHouse has 34 active chapters in the United States and Canada.
The National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC) is a collaborative umbrella council composed of historically African American fraternities and sororities, commonly called the Divine Nine, and also referred to as Black Greek Letter Organizations (BGLOs). The NPHC was formed as a permanent organization on May 10, 1930, on the campus of Howard University, in Washington, D.C., with Matthew W. Bullock as the active Chairman and B. Beatrix Scott as Vice-Chairman. NPHC was incorporated under the laws of the State of Illinois in 1937.
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.
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.
Sigma Phi Lambda (ΣΦΛ), also known as Sisters for the Lord or Phi Lamb, is a Christian sorority founded in 1988 in Austin, Texas.
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.
A colony is a probationary body of a national fraternity or sorority. It can be considered a new Greek organization that is awaiting official recognition from their international headquarters to maintain a chapter on their college’s campus. A group wishing to become a member of a fraternity or sorority must first petition for status as a colony. The entire membership of the colony remains as uninitiated associates, usually learning and operating under the guidance of an advisor from the national organization and/or from a sponsoring chapter.
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.
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.
Hazing in Greek letter organizations is defined as any act or set of acts that constitutes hazing and occurs in connection to a fraternity or sorority.
In North America, fraternities and sororities are social clubs at colleges and universities. They are sometimes collectively referred to as Greek life or Greek-letter organizations, as well as collegiate fraternities or collegiate sororities to differentiate them from traditional not (exclusively) university-based fraternal organizations and fraternal orders that have historically acted as friendly societies or benefit societies to certain groups unlike the ones mentioned in this article.
Delta Phi Lambda is an Asian-interest collegiate sorority in the United States. It was founded at the University of Georgia in 1998. The organization is a co-founder and member of the National Asian Pacific Islander Desi American Panhellenic Association (NAPA). Its campus chapters are members of their local Multicultural Greek Councils (MGCs).
