Fraternity why greek letters

Different groups modeled after the chapter at the College of William and Mary began to open up, combining and recombining different letters and numbers from the Greek alphabet to distinguish themselves from the original Phi Beta Kappa while simultaneously aligning themselves with the culture.

Greek life has become a staple of American colleges and universities and has had no lack in prestigious members. Phi Beta Kappa alone has inducted 17 U. See all the latest news from Greece and the world at Greekreporter. Contact our newsroom to report an update or send your story, photos and videos. My main area of study is ancient Greece, but I also write about other areas of history as well. View all posts by Spencer McDaniel. You are welcome! Thank you so much for your feedback. I always appreciate it when people have nice things to say about my articles and I hope you keep reading my site in the future.

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I do wish my other, more in-depth articles would get more attention, though. Quick question: Are you the descendent of W. While this meant more interaction, it also meant a large part of the attention of the fraternity had to be focused on the house itself. Alumni had to form boards to become incorporated and handle mortgage payments, legal matters and large repairs or improvements.

Active members at the chapter had to handle day to day business, which no longer included only intellectual daydreaming, free expression or academic exploration. It meant cleaning, maintaining, and paying for the property, and in some cases building the house!

Since many of the members were now formally living together, recreational activities came to the forefront since they were spending so much time together. Economic concerns also became a priority, simply because it takes money to own and maintain a property. But the Chapter House gave its members the opportunity to learn more practical skills and offered them the chance to take on more responsibility and gain leadership skills.

Originally members were given formal invitations and initiated one by one, often on separate occasions. But with many organizations now having their own houses that needed to be kept full, they often fiercely competed for the interests of incoming freshman. Today, "rush" has been replaced by "recruitment", signifying the active role a chapter takes to find the best members for their organizations.

The very first fraternity, Phi Beta Kappa was founded in , and was kept a "secret". In they disclosed their secrets and bylaws. Today, some fraternities keep their traditions and constitutions secret, and some publish them. These items no longer held the importance in the curriculum that they had previously.

So as time went on, teachings of The Classics became less and less common. As a result, the meanings of many of the rituals the fraternity was originally based on began to fade and become unknown to its members.

Due to this lack of knowledge, some fraternities began to depend on theatrical aspects of ceremonies, as opposed to the deeper, more profound meaning that had essentially been lost. Black Fraternity and Sorority Facts. Skip to content. Greek Letters Greek Letters. Share this: Twitter Facebook. Like this: Like Loading Leave a Reply Cancel reply Enter your comment here Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:.