Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic Any Phis here?

Hi!

Just for the matter of interest, are there any Alpha Phis here besides me, or anyone who knows an Alpha Phi?

Chriscy

Okay... what's an Alpha Phi?


Wendy

Greek organizations, Wendy. Men's fraternities and women's sororities. Most groups are found on college/university campuses, but sometimes high schools have them. Most groups are designed to promote excellence in both scholastics and the individual. And we do a lot of service and have parties. I don't know how international other Greek organizations are, but my group happens to have a couple of chapters in Western Canada.

Oh, and to answer Chriscy's question, I'm not an Alphi Phi, but I am a Delta Gamma. I go to school at a pretty small Jesuit campus, so we only have a few Greek groups. 5 to be exact right now since Sigma Chi was dumb enough to get their charter suspended for a good 5 years...


Jen

Oooooooh. So, go on, dish up the gossip. What did they do? Have a toga party?

LabRat (To-ga! To-ga!)

Thanks for the explanation, Jen. I've often wondered what those Greek names signify. They're certainly not found in European universities - I was a university student in Ireland for seven years, and a professor in the UK for sixteen.

There are student societies, all right, but not of the fraternity/sorority kind, and I'm not aware of single-sex student societies either.


Wendy

LOL. Nope, no toga party. (That was my apartment in September, by the way.) But they did have a huge party on campus, and from what I was able to piece together, the party moved onto the soccer field where they got a ton of freshman boys absolutely blitzed. Or at least that's the version I heard. Gossip spreads like wildfire on small campuses. :p

JD

Ooh, that's gotta hurt. The Sigma Chi at my school's pretty uh...active that way too :p but no one's dumb enough to cross the line far enough to get shut down or suspended since Gamma Phi Beta got shut down here two years ago. But that's all pre-me, because I'm in first year.

The Greek system at my school's pretty small too, considering our size (Western's considered a big school, I think). We have 12 frats and 5 sororites, but the frats are typically smaller than the sororities.

We have toga parties! And tie parties and 70s/80s parties and James Bond parties and Playboy parties (unforunately) and regular costume parties and uniform parties and potlucks, the whole nine yards! Lots of fun. They're not so bad, unless if some dumb people make bad decisions and do stupid things, but then your sisterhood/brotherhood's reputation is on the line. Of course, some people are selfish enough not to care, but that's another story.

But I go to a party school and I live in an infamous party res (it made #3 or something on David Letterman's list of places to...well, get laid in North America, and now the Saugeen Stripper is making international news, unfortunately), so even if I didn't join a sorority, I'd have plenty of opportunites to party. It's a part of university life, I guess, because I think that if someone *wants* to party, they'll be able to do it anywhere, at any school.

That said, we round it all out with lots of charity work. In fact, every year we have a quota to fill for how much money we are expected to raise and donate to our main philanthropic organizations. Charity work's lots of fun, too.

Oh, you're not alone! My mom never even heard of Greek systems until I told her I wanted to join one, and she went to university in Canada (probably because she was a Visa student, though). It was so nice, because since she didn't know about them, she didn't have all those negative stereotypes clouding her judgement, and I could really explain to her and have her accept what they really are. Now she's as enthusiastic about my sorority as I am!

However, even if you were to attend university here, you still may not have heard of Greek systems. Western's Greek system is a bit obscure and lacks exposure because we are not recognized by the school, and we're not under the University Student Council, the reason being the fact that we're not "equal opportunity organizations". During formal recruitment, or rush, as it's more commonly known, you end up getting a bid (invitation to join) based on who chooses you, if you get chosen. An equal opportunity organization, of course, has to let anybody who wants to join, join. Also, frats and sororities aren't equal opportunity because member dues (fees) can be up there, so some people can't afford to even if they are interested in joining. So, we have our own governing councils.

So yes, that's about it in a larger nutshell.

Chriscy

Well, I was a sister in Omega Phi Alpha service sorority in College and my dh was a Phi Gamma Delta.
I don't know how the Fiji's are at other campuses, but at our alma mater in TN they were one of the most upstanding fraternities on campus, as were the OPA sorority. (Of course I am unbiased.) Of course the OPA's participated in all the social stuff like Homecoming, but they were alot heavier on the service/volunteer work aspect than the other sororities at our campus---not to say the other sororities didn't do alot so please don't read that as a put-down. That's not what I meant. But our main emphasis was on service, even though we did the social stuff too. At my college, though, none of the sororities were allowed to have chapter houses, but all the fraternities did. I think it was due to some stupid, obscure, outdated law in the town having to do with brothels. I never did totally figure out why-- or make sense of it. Obviously, my school has never been featured on David Letterman for party central. :)But hey, I'm still proud of my alma mater.
Man, I really feel old thinking about that stuff. And I am not that old!!! But graduate college, get married, have kids, and then pretty soon the bag boy at the grocery store is calling you ma'am. It goes a little too fast sometimes.
I have to say though, I am enjoying this thirty-something stage of life pretty well. But I digress. Sorry.

Marcy

Good grief. And they got five years? How old are freshmen?

And bah - no imagination! What happened to leaving dead horses in the Dean's office? Now, there's something you can be proud of losing your charter for.

LabRat

Freshmen are generally 18. The legal age for drinking is 21 in the US; is it the same in Canada? It's against the law here to serve alcohol to minors, so fraternities do get into trouble for those sorts of things. I'm not sure how strict the law is in Canada.

A freshman died from alcohol poisoning here a few years ago (1999, I think?) and his family sued the school, so it's in the school's best interest to prevent things like that as much as possible (in addition to not wanting all their students to get alcohol poisoning <g>). After that incident, they decided not to allow freshmen to live in fraternities at all.

Kaylle

It was 1997. My freshman year. (I was actually in a class with him, but it was a huge lecture.) The decision was very contravertial, and, I think, not well thought out. Not with the ILGs to consider (Independant Living Groups, a class of housing unique to MIT). Not to mention the better-behaved frats. And the fact that there was already a serious on-campus housing crunch. And cracking down seriously drained the spirit of campus (no pun intended). There were much better ways of handling things, but the admin was a lot more interested in PR and doing what looked right rather than what was really the best thing. I tried to help (I was on one of the winning design teams for the new housing system), but there just wasn't much we could do.

But I'm getting really OT..

(Bitter? Me? Nah.)

Paul

I think it's fantastic that years later you're still thinking so fondly of your sisterhood; frankly, I think that's the way it should be! The same goes for schools; I think that everyone should be proud of whichever school they attend(ed) and think that it's the best in the world. Which is also why it always puzzles me whenever I hear people talk about their schools or alma maters in a negative way; why not change schools if they hated it so much? So good for you!

Honestly, this isn't something to be particularly proud of, in my opinion, but it's a funny conversation topic. But it's actually just the residence building that made the list, not the entire school! :p Saugeen-Maitland hall is the largest res on campus, and it houses I think 1200 people, so naturally, some craziness could only be expected.

That sounds like great fun to me! That's exactly what I want to do.

You know what's funny? I've gotten ma'amed a couple times before too, but I'm only 18. Maybe it's because I'm Asian though, so people want to be cautious because I could be 80 even if I look young.

In most provinces, the drinking age is 19, but in Quebec (and maybe a couple others, I'm not too sure) it's 18. That's why a lot of kids like to go to Montreal for Spring Break - it's the Canadian Cancun. And yeah, the cops bust parties all the time, which is why it's a sort of convention for Greeks to have VIP wristbands to bars or clubs as the afterparty, and usually the main events end at around midnight, so that people can go partying somewhere else. I feel bad for the people living near Greek houses, but many are students. That said, some houses behave pretty well so it's not too, too bad.

As far as strictness goes, it really depends. My friend's only 18, but she's been able to get into every venue she'd wanted with an ID that looks nothing like her (sh! it's a secret! ). It's a real ID and it hasn't expired or anything, but the girl isn't even really the same ethnicity and she's six feet tall, whereas my friend's only about 5'5"1/2. It has even worked at places where people scan them with a machine. I guess bouncers don't look at certain things, or...I don't know.

Personally, I'm not a huge drinker. In fact, I don't even really like the taste of alcohol; I would only get into places for the dancing and the music, and I haven't purchased (well, paid for) a single drop of alcohol I've consumed at school.

I've been told that generally, places with universities are more lax. I've also been told that the same is true for big cities (it's supposed to be easier to get into places and get drinks in Toronto than in London, say, but while I know it's fairly easy to get by in London, I've never been clubbing at home so I wouldn't know).

From my experience with frats, they do drink a LOT, but because my school doesn't recognize Greeks, parents wouldn't be able to sue the school. So far *knock on wood* nothing tragic like that has happened yet, so we don't have a lot of hard and fast rules about drinking and such. I do think sometimes, people are so dense that it takes something major like that for people to pull up their socks and do what they're supposed to do.

But I mean, the res staff at most schools understand that people are going to drink regardless. My don told us that as long as we keep the drinking in our rooms, she can't and won't do anything about it. It was a sort of go ahead.

I've seen and heard of lots of parents who buy drinks and carry them into res for their kids though, thinking that if they don't forbid it, it won't go out of hand (my own mother would never subscribe to that logic ). So it's no secret or anything, everyone knows what's going on at universities. I think it's just up to the individual. Parents have to trust that they've raised their kids well enough to be mature and responsible and to make good choices.

My two cents.

Chriscy

I'm greek, too . I was a Sigma Psi when I was an undergrad. My sister was a Phi Mu. We had A Phi on our campus, but they were kind of . . . not our friends . . . as a rule. (although two of them were my good friends.) LOL!

Labrat, I believe you've seen Animal House one too many times!! You have to love that movie though. Belushi is just classic. One of my dh's favorites.

Marcy

Yeah, actually I haven't seen it in years. This thread has prompted me to buy it from Amazon.

LabRat

It's 18 here. I can’t remember Saskatchewan. There it may be 21, but maybe that is just for . . . certain ‘places’. During spring break we get a lot of kids from North Dakota and Minnesota b/c of the age limit - ugh. Kids here don't go to the bar during that time. It's the same generally for serving to minors.

I only went to the bars for a month when I was 20/21 (and once when I was 18) b/c I starting working at a place and that's what they did. I never drank - I dislike the taste. I'll have the odd screwdriver or banana margarita, but I can still count how many drinks I've had on my two hands and I'm 28 I enjoy soft drinks and chocolate milk.

I have always known about these types of groups, but never really went out to search one b/c of the elitist negative image. I thought it would be fun, but since I was never really great socially and very shy - I figured what would be the point. I finally found a frat house a few years ago while I was out on a walk.

I think they are great if done right, but I know they are all not into partying yada yada, but it would have been cool to be apart of something while I was at University for seven years. Then again there are so many organizations you can be apart of, but the whole living situation looks neat (I lived at home while going to Uni.
)and being just apart of something that can do something positive is great. Hey, having connections is great too.

At the UofM here, oddly enough it is the Engineering faculty is the worse for anything alcoholic or doing dumb stuff. My mum worked in that dept for a while and she thought it was hilarious and annoying what they would do the first few weeks of the school year. You had to walk around with umbrella’s. . . one year they took apart a generator that was on display and the put it back together in the Dean's office. Another time they managed to get some 'head guy's' car on the roof of the engineering building. When alcohol is involved they get more inventive. (I didn't go to that Uni.)

What's so odd about that? Back home in Oz, engineering students are notorious for boozing and doing "dumb stuff." We work hard, we play hard. Oh, and we feel we have a moral duty to protect the rest of Society from the evils of drink and immorality by monopolising it all... or that was the basic tenet of SCIIAES (the Society for the Confinement of Immoral Impulses Amongst Engineering Students -- pronounced "skee-aze") way back when I was at another UofM -- Uni of Melbourne, that is. We had a lot of fun -- and drank a lot. I still have my SCIIAES membership card and there may even be an old t-shirt lurking in a drawer somewhere... :rolleyes:

I don't think I ought to describe some of the things we got up to in a public forum -- especially during our annual Purity Week...

Dragging this vaguely back to the original topic, what (if anything) is the significance of the Greek letters used by each frat/sorority? Or were they picked more or less at random? Is there any hierarchy between, say, those with 2 letters and those with 3?

Phil (not a Phi, a Phil) :p

Engineers drink. A lot. At Case, the Chemical Engineering department is famous for weekly keggers on the quad, and Biomedical engineering department (my department) throws these amazing holiday parties with more alcohol than you can ever imagine.

As for the significance of the greek letters, as far as I know, from my sorority's history, the letters were chosen kind of at random with no real significance. My sorority was founded on the campus of Western Reserve University in 1897 -- and before that, the founding members were part of a social group called "the Greeks" and 2 sororities were formed out of it, Sigma Psi (still a local sorority on CWRU's campus) and Phi Delta Upsilon (which later merged with Phi Mu, the national sorority). As far as I know, the letters were chosen at random because they looked cool together and for no other reason.

I understand. But honestly, I think it's so unfortunate that sororities generally have this cattiness going on and just can't get along...although I can't say I've seen how it is with every school. I mean, at DePauw where there's like a 70% Greek population, they must get along, right?

That said, I really hated rush. It was an awful, awful experience for me, which is why I'm so anti-sorority for a sorority girl, even though I love my own (sounds very hypocritical but it's a common enough sentiment).

Our Eng people are pretty crazy, but I've never heard of them causing a lot of trouble because of excessive drinking. In fact, our Eng people are pretty cool, because the kind of ruckus they cause is a lot of fun - this year, they dropped a some-hundreds pound pumpkin from the top of a tall building (and, I imagine, calculating the rate of acceleration for it and such) to raise money for charity. I've heard they like to burn things a lot, which is always fun to watch, and I've even been told that some years back, they dropped a certain combination of chemicals in the Thames River (which runs through our campus) and people thought there were UFOs because of the coloured glow generated by the chemicals! Some very, very good friends of mine are in Eng.

Well, Phil Who's Not A Phi , there is special significance of the letters used by...well, some Greek organizations. The letters of my sorority stand for a Greek phrase (well, two words) that I'm not allowed to disclose because it's confidential, but they were definitely chosen because they mean something. And I'm pretty sure there is no hierarchy between organizations with 2 letters and those with 3. Most have three letters, but...well, I guess it's just like everyone's names, some names are just longer/shorter than others, or some people have middle names or multiple middle names while others don't have any.