Greek life at U of L: past to present

By Brooks Rice

There is much more to the history of the Greek System at U of L than their 1960’s heyday. The reputed debauchery of Greek organizations around the country during this time single handily sparked the career of Sam the Sham and The Pharaohs. Its history at U of L runs much farther back than that. In fact, it began half a century before those times.

The first fraternity at U of L was Phi Chi, established in the 1890’s. Phi Chi was a medical school fraternity. Despite Phi Chi’s presence on U of L’s campus, former dean John Letcher Patterson (1908-1922, president 1928-1929) opposed the organization of undergraduate fraternities.

In 1921, Patterson relented, and the first undergraduate fraternity was organized at U of L. Delta Sigma was founded in 1905. Their house, on South Third Street, was built in 1925. Later in the ’20s, more undergraduate fraternities and sororities were founded. In fact, most of U of L’s grads at the time, then a small private school, were members of fraternities or sororities.

It was not long before Greek houses were characterized for their partying behavior. In December of 1932, just 10 years after their undergraduate foundations, university administration discouraged alcoholic intoxication at Greek events. This does not necessarily, however, mean this rule was enforced.

After World War II, the GI Bill allowed more men to attend college. U of L rapidly increased its male enrollment during the late 1940s. Just a couple years after George MacArthur and Yoshijiro Umezu signed a treaty ending the war, U of L added several fraternities. Lamda Chi Alpha, Phi Kappa Tau, Pi Kappa Phi, Sigma Alpha Nu, Sigma Phi Epsilon and Tau Epsilon Phi were all results of a dramatic increase of male enrollment following World War II.

Just after the storied debauchery of Greeks in the early and mid 1960’s, U of L fraternities, as well as fraternities around the country, saw their membership numbers diminish during the Vietnam War. Many students saw members of Greek organizations as pretentious and snobbish at a time when such characteristics were frowned upon when left-wing politics were the rage on college campuses. A Time magazine article from 1966 even said the percentage of Greek membership was “shrinking steadily”.

Discriminatory practices were prevalent in U of L’s Greek houses. Phillip Davidson (president 1951-1968) forbade discriminating practices in pledging for fraternities and sororities. By the 1960s, every house was said to have had at least one Jewish member. But, African-American Greek membership was nonexistent.

In 1970, after U of L was made public, the student population increased, including that of African-Americans. African-Americans fraternities and sororities have been established at U of L since then. In December of 1992, The National Pan Hellenic Council, a national organization representing 1.5 million members in African-American Greek organizations, accredited the eight predominantly African-American Greek organizations at U of L: Alpha Kappa Alpha, Delta Sigma Theta, Sigma Gamma Rho, Zeta Phi Beta, Alpha Phi Alpha, Kappa Alpha Psi, Omega Psi Phi and Phi Beta Sigma. U of L was the first college in Kentucky to receive such accreddation. There are now fourteen fraternities and ten sororities at U of L.