Traditions your local chapter/campus has
 

When I say this I do not mean secrets/ritual!!

On my campus all of the sororities get hockey jerseys and the fraternities get baseball jerseys. They will sometimes have a nickname on the back and depending on who you're talking to they will explain where their name came from.

For as long as I am aware (about 50 years), on my alma mater campus the same NPC sorority has had their members work in the coat check area of a main on-campus building every single year. That chapter has been on campus over 75 years.

At the University of Tulsa, members of the sororities and fraternities get “Jerseys” in TU colors, no matter what their GLO colors are. They wear blue shirts with gold letters so they can wear them to athletic events to support the University as well as their GLO.

That's a cool idea!

Back in the day, each sorority had a white satin jacket style, and most of the members wound up getting the jackets. Your letters were on the back in your colors. Delta Zeta had pink, and Phi Sigma Sigma had blue (pretty color) but everyone else had white. I remember being excited about being able to get my jacket (although I never wound up getting one) when I came back from my first rush party.

I know 33girl's school had them around the same time...not sure about when she was there. There's a recruitment story from Clarion where the girl talks about the jackets. She either pledged the same year I did, or the year after.

We still incorporate our cardinal by doing a double letter (red X & O under gold letters) so it looks like a red outline on the gold X & O. Kappa Sig and Pike do the same. KA does a white outline. Tri Delta and Sigma Chi are already there. (It probably started with DDD and Sigma Chi wearing their jerseys to games and everyone followed.)

In my day, my chapter would sing songs during dinners-usually 2 times a week. Someone would tap their ice tea glass with her spoon, everyone would quiet down, and that person would start singing the song and we would all chime in. It was such fun!

Once a month we celebrated birthdays with birthday cake for dessert and we sang a song while the birthday girls ran around the table where they were seated.

We had wooden crowns that we had to have signed by each initiated member. In order to get the signature, it forced the pledges to meet with the "actives" as we called them, and really have a conversation with them. Our big sisters would take them crown away at a specific deadline and would decorate the front of the crown as an initiation gift for us. Unfortunately, that is considered hazing now.

We had a washboard band with ukuleles, a washboard, guitars, spoons, bongos, an overturned washtub with a broom handle and string for a bass, a jug, etc. We performed at various charity events around Tallahassee. We wore overalls and red gingham checked shirts. You had to audition to get in. I played the bongos.

And last, but not least, sometimes after dinner, someone would throw a fist in the air, and yell "ahhhhhhhhhh" and everyone would join in, and we would run outside and hold a spirit circle in the front yard. After the spirit circle, we would all run back in and chant a cheer in the foyer-one that we could only chant if there were no guests, and our "servers", the collegiate guys who served dinner and cleaned up after, were gone.

The crown thing sounds awesome. It makes me sad to see traditions like that go by the wayside. We decorated paddles...which, I understand, isn't considered PC in some places nowadays. But, it's not like we were beating each other- it was just a paddle.

So for my sorority when we took out stuff from our greek room for a philanthropy event (We don't have houses at my college.) there were 2 things that looked like they were fun.

1 was a scrapbook for each pledge class. There was a page for each girl in the pledge class and it was interesting getting a look at what they were into. The other were recipes from a chapter wide cookbook. Trust me I get deterring harmful hazing but traditions like this scrapbook are things I kind of wish happened in my new member period that could have been potential bonding events. (I was initiated into mine this past year).

I pledged a local sorority. The colors were green and purple. The founders started a tradition of "sister shirts" where each pledge class got stitched letter shirts at initiation. The colors alternated - the founders, a.k.a. the Alpha class, got purple letters on green shirts, and the Beta class (my class) got green letters on purple shirts. We then joined AEPhi, so the local never had a Gamma class. If there had been a Gamma class, they would have received purple letters on green shirts, etc ...

I still have my sister shirt.

We had an evening where each of us would invite a favorite professor to the house for a special dinner. After dinner, we would serenade them with our songs. It was very popular with the faculty.

We did the professor dinner thing, too.

Another thing I remember was doing the Hustle at our gatherings and invitationals. When I was an active in the 90s, we added the Macarena arm movements. Not sure if that stuck.

At Cal generally, the band used to send groups out to serenade all the Greek houses after football games. We provided them with sandwiches and soft drinks, but the frats gave them a LOT of beer. Since we were right next to the stadium, we got the least-drunk, highest-quality performances. ;)

My chapter had the pledges carry pocket sized notebooks. The pledges were required to interview every active brother and "take notes" during the conversation. This was done to get the pledges and actives better acquainted. The notebooks could also be used to document "wrong doings" during the pledge period.

Each pledge class also completed a pledge project that was "For the good of the chapter". Sometimes, something Phi Tau related was made, other times it was a dinner for the actives. My class project was a weekend camping trip, talk about RM issues...

One fraternity made their pledges paint and carry bricks. Each new week of the pledge period, another brick was added. Can you imagine carrying 6-8 bricks around campus?

Back in my day, PKT4Life, we did the same thing with the notebook and the interviews. Unfortunately that is now hazing. We also did a pledge class project for the chapter or maybe bought something for the chapter. One class bought new file cabinets for our study files. One bought new couches for the living room.

As for traditions, on a campus I advised at, every fraternity and sorority had what they called unity letters. As the campus's colors were gold and maroon, everyone had a maroon shirt with gold and white letters for their organization. I always thought that was cool.

My local did a similar thing with notebooks. I can't disclose the specifics, but each pledge was required to speak with each active (e.g. over coffee) to complete the notebook.