Underground Fraternities - The Risk

[LaneSig]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...ng/2178676001/

An article in USAToday about underground fraternities. It discusses the recent investigation at Colby College(ME) into rumors that discovered 4 underground fraternities operating.

I thought the article was fairly well-balanced and the acknowledgement that if fraternities are banned at colleges, underground fraternities will spring up that the administration has zero control over.


Article discussing Colby College's investigation: http://colbyechonews.com/outside-inv...ties-at-colby/

[Rod D]

Interesting comments about publishing the rules violations and how vague it is. While true, that is probably by design as most violations are minor and categorizing them makes them sound worse than they are. For example, having new members do a house project is considered hazing. If they said AZY hazed by making their new members paint a room in the house, they would look silly. Saying they hazed, makes the GLO evil.

[naraht]

is there a general term for fraternity chapters recognized by their national, but not by the school? (For example, I believe that one national social fraternity currently has a Morgantown, West Virginia chapter because WVU doesn't recognize the fraternity on campus, but their national does.)

[Tom Earp]

Wow, to me, Underground means they have something to hide!

So, what do they have to hide? Drinking, Hazing, or No True Reason for being a Group of sensible people who do conform to some record of senility and common sense.

Roust and oust them!

Just say By By!

[LaneSig]

Originally Posted by naraht

is there a general term for fraternity chapters recognized by their national, but not by the school? (For example, I believe that one national social fraternity currently has a Morgantown, West Virginia chapter because WVU doesn't recognize the fraternity on campus, but their national does.)

In the cases of Sigma Chi chapters that are recognized by our HQ but not the university, we refer to them as "A Chapter at a College in Morgantown, WV".

FWIW- there are at least 4 chapters that decided to not join the IFC at WVU.

[GreekOne]

Originally Posted by naraht

is there a general term for fraternity chapters recognized by their national, but not by the school? (For example, I believe that one national social fraternity currently has a Morgantown, West Virginia chapter because WVU doesn't recognize the fraternity on campus, but their national does.)

There are a couple of fraternities at Penn State that match this description. With the university clamping down on infractions that the nationals' don't consider worthy of pulling a charter over it will likely continue to be a trend.

[33girl]

There’s not really a term - just “unrecognized by the school.” Despite what some people might say, they can NOT be referred to as underground organizations, since the school and everyone else is perfectly aware they’re there. When things are underground you can’t see them (hence the term).

[psy]

There are, IIRC, two NPC memberss that have chapters that are functionally at Georgetown but are unrecognized by the university. I think that they are just referred to by their chapter designation.

[PKT4LIFE]

Our chapter at San Jose State is not recognized by the university and is referred to as "Underground". This chapter is doing well with membership (has won a few national awards). I served on their alumni board during colonization and for few years after chartering. BTW, the hazing allegation is BS, never happened.

The chapter is referred to as "San Jose", not San Jose State University due to possible legal problems.

[navane]

Originally Posted by psy

There are, IIRC, two NPC memberss that have chapters that are functionally at Georgetown but are unrecognized by the university. I think that they are just referred to by their chapter designation.

If I understand correctly, Georgetown doesn't formally recognize GLOs, but Kappa Kappa Gamma and Kappa Alpha Theta operate under their full names and do conduct recruitment. That said, KKG does list a "Georgetown" chapter on their website; but, Theta omits the university name and lists only the chapter designation.

[Kevin]

Unrecognized fraternities operate as a warning as to what will happen to schools who ban Greek Life. Their bans will be largely ignored at public universities and administrators will lack any power whatsoever to police things.

[Sister Havana]

Originally Posted by navane

If I understand correctly, Georgetown doesn't formally recognize GLOs, but Kappa Kappa Gamma and Kappa Alpha Theta operate under their full names and do conduct recruitment. That said, KKG does list a "Georgetown" chapter on their website; but, Theta omits the university name and lists only the chapter designation.

Brandeis is like this too. They don't officially recognize GLOs, but there are ten of them there. (Five fraternities and five sororities.)

[thetalady]

Georgetown's Greek Life page is interesting... Greek organizations are unrecognized and unsupported, but an important part of the community.

About 10% of Hoyas belong to fraternities and sororities, which are non-access-to-benefits and officially unrecognized by the university but which serve an important role in our campus community.


Greek Life

[Rod D]

U of Colorado, u of Michigan, West Virginia and I think Nevada Reno all have "unrecognized" fraternities. The have set up there own IFCs. Seems like they are doing pretty well.

[LaneSig]

IMO

"Unrecognized" - an inter/national organization recognizes the undergraduates as full members of their organization with all the rights and privileges of membership. Members of the chapter have to abide by the rules and regulations of the organization. The local university does not recognize the group as a campus organization.

"Underground" - usually founded by members of a chapter that has been closed due to risk management. They are not recognized by the inter/national organization or the university they attend. The members will often use their ritual and tell new members that they are being initiated into the national organization. The "fraternity" does not honor or abide by the rules and regulations of the inter/national organization; why would they? They didn't follow the rules before their charter was pulled. They are the bane of our organizations and campus administration.