List of fraternities and sororities at Cornell University
The Cornell Greek system dates to the first months of University operation during the autumn of 1868. Cornell's co-founder and first president, Andrew Dickson White was a strong promoter of fraternities as a means of teaching self-governance to young students.
Other strong supporters of the Greek system were Presidents Edmund Ezra Day and Frank H.T. Rhodes. Cornell University currently hosts 41 fraternities, 12 sororities, and 16 multi-cultural Greek-letter associations.[3]
Fraternities or sororities possessing University-owned facilities under Cornell University Residence Plan of 1966 [edit]
During AY 1948-1949, Cornell University President Edmund Ezra Day formally distanced the University leadership from the increased discrimination at Cornell after 1910. His speech marked the beginning an effort to end unlawful discrimination on the campus, a goal to which the University is still committed. Following hearings into discrimination within Cornell's system of private fraternities and sororities, fifteen fraternities liquidated private holdings and entered into the Cornell University Residence Plan of 1966, an agreement which required all signatories to not engage in unlawful discrimination.[4] The majority of CURP ’66 houses are on the Cornell West Campus.
The Plan created a system of 'living and learning' by Small Residence.
Each Group House was maintained by a Priority Group electing its Group Sponsor. Phi Kappa Psi, for instance, sponsored Group House No. IV d/b/a/ The Irving Literary Society, and developed its parcel on Cornell's West Campus. Cornell desired an academic atmosphere in student residence “units” providing appropriate facilities for intellectual and cultural activities and by encouraging student participation in these pursuits.[5] CURP ’66 was not simply the creation of University-owned fraternities and sororities, but a plan to provide a supplement to the University-maintained dormitory complex, the existing Cornell Greek System, off-campus apartments and rooming houses. The vision was to organize “Small Residences” together, regardless of their national or local orientation as fraternities or cooperatives.[6] The University program provided for no discrimination on the basis of race, creed, color or national origin. The issue of gender was addressed in the equal promotion of female, male and gender neutral Group Houses.[7] In 1998, Cornell's President Hunter R. Rawlings III reaffirmed the Board of Trustees' commitment to the Cornell University Residence Plan of 1966.[8]
The current CURP ’66 was created from an existing University leasing system dating to the 1881 decision by Andrew Dickson White to favor fraternities over dormitories. White thought fraternities “’[would] arouse in the students a feeling of responsibility both for the care of the property and for the reputation of the house . . . [and] fastens upon [students’] duties and responsibilities similar to those of men in the active world was among the better solutions of the problems [of] . . . students in American universities.’”[9] White’s vision, in turn, develop from the professional analysis of American architect and planner, Frederic Law Olmstead, who saw the erection of residential clubhouses on Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act as a reform over the barracks-like dormitories used by existing American universities and colleges.[10] Like White, Olmsted felt clubhouses maintained by the students would form part of the educational experience. They were to be modeled on the typical rural household of the era, small country villas thought to avoid the negative aspects of the Industrial revolution.[11]
The CURP signatories with the University are:
-
- Group House No. I, possessed by Delta Kappa Epsilon, signatory since 1960, 13 South Avenue (in residence);
- Group House No. II, possessed by Delta Tau Delta (the Shelter), signatory since June 8, 1960, 104 Mary Anne Wood Drive (in residence);
- Group House No. III, Chi Phi ("Craigielea," fraternity), signatory since Nov. 15, 1960, 107 Edgemoor Lane (in residence);
- Group House No. IV, "Ivy," possessed by Phi Kappa Psi ("The Gables"), signatory since Nov. 30, 1959, 525 Stewart Avenue, service deliveries to 120 Mary Anne Wood Drive; Phi Psi is also the parent organization to the Irving Literary Society. First to sign into the revised Group Housing Plan in 1959, it was fourth in accession due to negotiations over the sale of its property at 312 Thurston Avenue, the former Wyckoff Mansion (in residence);
- Group House No. V, possessed by Sigma Phi Epsilon, signatory since 1962, 109 McGraw Place (in residence);
- Group House No. VI, possessed by Delta Upsilon, signatory since 1962, 6 South Avenue (in residence);
- Group House No. VII, formerly possessed by Kappa Alpha, which was a signatory in 1991 (signing was delayed for three decades, for reasons unknown), 14 South Avenue (chapter reputed to be in exile, Collegetown);
- Group House No. VIII, possessed by Zeta Psi, signatory since 1963, 534 Thurston Avenue, (in residence);
- Group House No. IX, occupied by Sigma Alpha Mu, and formerly possessed by Chi Omega, signatory since 1963, 10 Sisson Place, on North Campus;[12]
- Group House X, occupied by University Residence Life, 201 Thurston Avenue, and formerly possessed by Lambda Upsilon Lambda, signatory since 1965, when the CURP program was closed out in favor of a return to individual leasing.
Fraternities or sororities possessing University-owned facilities under other agreements [edit]
The Cornell University Residence Plan of 1966 was based on agreements with other institutions, dating from 1933 to 1952, and after 1965:
- Kappa Alpha Theta (sorority), 519 Stewart Ave
- Psi Upsilon (fraternity), 2 Forest Park Ln
- Sigma Phi (fraternity), 1 Forest Park Ln
- Kappa Sigma (fraternity), 600 University Avenue
- Lambda Upsilon Lambda, 722 University Avenue
- Phi Gamma Delta ("The Oaks"), 118 McGraw Pl[13]
- Sigma Alpha Epsilon ("Hillcrest"), 101 McGraw Pl
- Sigma Phi Epsilon (fraternity), 109 McGraw Pl
Fraternities possessing privately owned facilities [edit]
Other fraternities have remained outside the ambit of University ownership. As of October 2009, these chapters include the following:
- Acacia[14]
- Alpha Delta Phi[14]
- Alpha Epsilon Pi[14]
- Alpha Gamma Rho[14]
- Alpha Sigma Phi[14]
- Alpha Tau Omega[14]
- Alpha Zeta[14]
- Beta Theta Pi[14]
- Chi Psi[14]
- Delta Chi[14]
- Delta Phi[14]
- Kappa Delta Rho[14]
- Lambda Chi Alpha[14]
- Phi Delta Theta[14]
- Phi Kappa Tau[14]
- Pi Kappa Phi[14]
- Seal and Serpent[14]
- Sigma Chi[14]
- Sigma Nu[14]
- Sigma Pi[14]
- Tau Kappa Epsilon[14]
- Theta Delta Chi[14]
- Zeta Beta Tau[14]
