Fraternities and Sororities
The fraternities and sororities are student organizations in the Anglo-American tradition. Their distribution is concentrated in North America . They are almost always separated according to sex and denote their connections mostly with Greek letters . Colloquially Fraternities are called Frats called, according to its members than boys Frat and the fraternity house as a house Frat .
The fraternities and sororities - like the European student corporations - have their presumed historical origin in the student orders of the Enlightenment of the 18th century.
The term fraternity primarily describes a college fraternity , i.e. a brotherhood of students . In addition, there are other so-called forms of association such as honor fraternities , also known as honor societies , which are more like room societies to support graduates in their further career path. The professional fraternities are of particular importance for university life. They can be accepted without an initiation rite and whose membership requirements are usually only linked to defined specialist qualifications. These free professional associations often maintain liaison houses at universities with appropriate vocational training courses, but students are rarely accepted before graduation.
Student associations
The fraternity ( English for brotherhood, plural fraternities ) is the Anglo-American form of the student union, while female students can organize themselves in a sorority (English for sisterhood, plural sororities ). As a fixed overarching designation, these two terms are named together ( fraternities and sororities ), which in German are reduced to the single common word connections .
It is likely that the American fraternities and sororities with the student orders of the 18th century share roots with the European fraternities . Some fraternities know how to wear color in the form of a couleur ribbon , which may only be worn at their own events. In practically all fraternities and sororities there is the pledge status corresponding to the fox . In American connections there is a rather extreme treatment of the pledge with various more or less humiliating rituals. The so-called hazing is mostly limited to a single "hell week" (hell week). But there are also significant differences to European student associations, especially the German-speaking ones : fraternities and sororities have no scale and no, or only a rudimentary, comment .
In contrast to some European associations, membership fees are paid by the student members. Many connections maintain residential buildings for their members, which, unlike the corporation houses in Germany, are mostly located directly on campus.
A single connection usually maintains representations, so-called chapters, at several, sometimes even very many, university locations. The names of the connections are usually composed of three Greek letters , and each chapter has a name composed of mostly two Greek letters as an addition to the connection name. This form of connection is therefore also known as the Greek system .
Memberships in fraternities or sororities are more common in the USA than in Germany. As a rule, they are not considered to be “conservative”, but instead have the reputation of hosting many and sometimes excessive parties, for which the term “Greek life” has become established. The reputation is partly due to a different party culture than at German universities, which is particularly influenced in the USA by the higher minimum age for legal alcohol consumption: The consumption of alcohol (including beer) is only allowed at the age of 21, whereas in the US Bachelor students usually complete their four-year study period at the age of 18 to 22. As a result, alcohol is taboo for most Bachelor students; If you still drink it at a party, the event becomes illegal. In addition, due to the legal situation, American students usually come to universities with little or no alcohol experience. For this reason alone, fraternities and sororities, as frequent party organizers, are in a different area of tension than corresponding German connections, which in turn affects the audience they attract.
The political influence of certain connections, at least of the members (see in particular Skull and Bones ), cannot be denied . A national orientation is the norm, but - like other American nationalism - this is almost always strongly liberal and pro-democratic in color. Most American associations do not see themselves as elitist , although some are de facto.
historical development
Today there are a very large number of different connections, although the orientation of most connections is also international, so there are often individual connection houses with their own orientation. Most of the national associations arose from such individual association orders, later associations have often split off from older associations.
The spread of the connections at the universities led to resistance to limit their influence, and at the beginning of the 20th century most connections had little more than to organize the maintenance of the connection houses. Connections reached a new high after World War II, but were again sidelined by the alternative cultures that existed in the 1960s and 1970s. Since the 1980s, the connections have been recovering and gaining new popularity.
year | connection | development |
---|---|---|
1780 | Phi Beta Kappa | Secret society, still built in the style of Masonic lodges. |
1825 | Kappa Alpha | Student union, induction ceremony ties in with Freemasons |
1831 | Sigma Phi | First inter-university connection |
1831 | Alpha Delta Phi | First with extended support, "for the whole man" |
1833 | Skull and Bones | First connection with the annual secret association. |
1837 | Mystical Seven | First connection with the fraternity house on campus |
1839 | Beta Theta Pi | First connection with mass alignment. |
1857 | Sigma Phi | First connection with own dormitories. |
1870 | Kappa Alpha Theta | First female connection |
1899 | Delta Sigma Phi | First connection that allows Christians and Jews alike. |
1899 | Tau Kappa Epsilon | First connection that hell week abolished in 1928 . |
1904 | Alpha Kappa Psi | First connection with a focus on professionalism and economy. |
1906 | Alpha Phi Alpha | First African American connection. |
1931 | Phi Iota Alpha | First Latino connection. |
2013 | Alif Laam Meem - Alpha Lambda Mu | First Muslim connection. |
Umbrella organizations
The umbrella organizations were founded primarily to improve public image, but also offer other services to train supervisors and to exchange various connections. Individual connections, regardless of their name, are often assigned to a certain group on a campus (e.g. according to ethnic criteria), which then belong to a corresponding umbrella organization.
- Association of College Honor Societies - umbrella organization of 65 religious associations.
- Concilio Interfraternitario Puertorriqueño de la Florida (CIPFI) - umbrella organization of the five Florida associations with a Puerto Rican background
- Fraternity Leadership Association - umbrella organization of alliances that have withdrawn from the North-American Interfraternity Conference.
- National APIA Panhellenic Association (NAPA) - umbrella organization of 10 associations with mainly Asian backgrounds
- National Association of Latino Fraternal Organizations (NALFO) - umbrella organization of 23 fraternities with a Latin American background
- National Multicultural Greek Council (NMGC) - umbrella organization of 13 associations with a defined multicultural orientation (known as "Multicultural Councils" or "Unified Greek Councils")
- National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC) - umbrella organization of nine historic Afro-American associations (known as "Pan-Hellenic Councils")
- National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) - umbrella organization with 26 (female) associations (known as "Panhellenic Councils")
- North-American Interfraternity Conference (NIC) - umbrella organization with 68 (male) connections (known as "Interfraternity Councils")
- Professional Fraternity Association (PFA) - umbrella organization of 26 association for specific professional groups
- United Council of Christian Fraternities & Sororities - umbrella organization of connections with a Christian orientation
There are also organizations that are committed to supporting certain functions.
- Association of Fraternity Advisors - Fraternity Advisor s organization of connections on campus
- College Fraternity Editors Association - Organization of the press representatives of the umbrella organizations
- Fraternity Executives Association - Organization for fraternity administrative representatives
Processing in film and literature
- I believe, Animal House (Animal House), American Comedy, 1978
- The Sixth Semester , US comedy, 2002
- Old School - We're not going to miss anything , US comedy. 2003
- Sydney White - Campus Queen , US comedy, 2007
- Greek , US television series, 2007
- American Pie Presents: The College Clique , US comedy, 2007
- Bad Neighbors , US comedy, 2014
- Monster University , US animated film, 2013
- 21 & Over , US comedy, 2013
- Scream Queens , American horror comedy television series, 2015
- Freiwild - Tatort University , American documentary, 2015
See also
literature
- Jack Anson, Robert Marchesani Jr. (Ed.): Baird's Manual of American College Fraternities . 1991. ISBN 0-9637159-0-9 .
- Gerhard Habermehl: On the question of the common roots of German student associations and American fraternities. In: Einst und Jetzt , Vol. 49 (2004). Pp. 149-161.
- Craig Torbenson, Gregory Parks (eds.): Brothers and Sisters: Diversity in College Fraternities and Sororities. Associated University Presses, Cranbury 2009. ISBN 978-0-8386-4194-1 .
- o. A .: Fraternities in Canada . In: W. Stewart Wallace (Ed.): The Encyclopedia of Canada , Volume II. University Associates of Canada, Toronto 1948. pp. 393-394. ( online )
Web links
- Spiegel-online (Unispiegel) via secret connections at Anglo-Saxon universities
- greekpages.com: The History of College Fraternities
Individual evidence
- ↑ frat - English »German - PONS. In: de.pons.com. Retrieved October 3, 2017 .
- ^ Peter Kaupp: Freemasonry and Boy Customs. Continuity of religious traditions in corporate students. In: Einst und Jetzt , Vol. 46 (2001). Pp. 33–68, here: p. 68.
- ^ Sawyer Library
- ↑ focus.de: Haudrauf-Humor: US comedy "21 & Over" , accessed on November 30, 2013