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Pennsylvania communities through discrete service activities. [16a]
The Wheel and Chain is another Dickinson‘s College Senior Honorary Society, but for women only.
Founded in 1924, members are elected in the spring of their junior year on the basis of participation in
campus activities, service to the college and community, leadership skills and personal character.
Membership is limited to ten senior women. New members are inducted in a ―Tapping Ceremony‖ which
is held on the ―Old Stone Steps of Old West‖ in April. In May, each incoming Wheel and Chain class
ceremoniously rings the bell in Denny Hall during Commencement ceremonies. Colloquially known as the
―blue hats‖, members are known to the public; however, the society‘s activities remain secret. [16a]
The Porcellian Club is a male-only final club at Harvard University, sometimes called the Porc or the
P.C., and whose club house is termed the ‗Old Barn‘. The year of founding is usually given as 1791, when
a group began meeting under the name ‗The Argonauts‘, or as in 1794, the year of ‗the roast pig dinner‘ at
which the club, known first as the ‗Pig Club‘ was formally founded. An urban myth mentions a belief that;
―If members of the Porcellian do not earn their first million before they turn 40, the club will give it to
them‖. The club‘s motto, ‗Dum vivimus vivamus‘, ―While we live, let‘s live‖- is literally ‗Epicurean‘, and
Epicureanism is a form of hedonism. The club emblem is the pig, and some members sport golden pigs on
watch-chains, cufflinks or neckties bearing pig‘s-head emblems. [11]
Chi Psi Fraternity, ΧΨ is a fraternity and secret society consisting of 32 chapters [known as Alphas], at
American colleges and universities, and was founded on the 20th May 1841, by 10 students at Union
College. - Sigma Chi [΢Χ] is one of the largest and oldest college Greek-letter secret and social fraternities
with 236 active chapters and 295,000 initiates. Sigma Chi was founded on the 28th June 1855 at Miami
University in Oxford, Ohio, USA, when members split from Delta Kappa Epsilon. Psi Upsilon [ΨΥ, Psi
U] is the fifth oldest college fraternity in the United States, founded at Union College in 1833. It has
chapters at colleges and universities throughout North America, for most of its history, Psi Upsilon, like
most social fraternities, limited its membership to men only. Today 2011 there are several co-educational
Psi Upsilon chapters. [18]
Beta Theta Pi [ΒΘΠ] is a social collegiate fraternity that was founded in 1839 also at Miami University
in Oxford, Ohio, where it is part of the ‗Miami Triad‘ which includes Phi Delta Theta and Sigma Chi.
Beta, as it‘s nicknamed, was the first college fraternity to be founded west of the Allegheny Mountains,
and it has 120 active chapters and colonies in the United States and Canada. Over 190,000 [2011]
members have been initiated worldwide, with 133,000 of those presumed still living.
Sigma Alpha Epsilon [΢ΑΔ, also SAE] is a North American Greek-letter social college fraternity
founded at the University of Alabama on the 9th March 1856, and is the largest college fraternity by total
initiates, with more than 293,000 initiated members and more than 12,000 undergraduates at 300 chapters
in 49 states and provinces at present. The creed of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, ‗The True Gentlemen‘, must be
memorised and recited by all prospective members. New members receive a copy of ‗The Phoenix‘, the
manual of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, for educational development. [19]
Pi Kappa Alpha International Fraternity [ΠΚΑ, known as Pikes] is an international secret social
Greek-letter college fraternity. It was founded at the University of Virginia in the United States on Sunday
evening, March 1, 1868. There are chapters in nearly every state, and at many colleges and universities in
the USA and Canada. The chapter with the largest property in the country is the Iota Delta chapter which
occupies 26 acres at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.
Lambda Chi Alpha [ΛΧΑ] is one of the largest men‘s general fraternities in North America, by its own
count, having initiated more than 270,000 members and held chapters at more than 300 universities.
Theta Chi Fraternity currently has over 130 active chapters, as well as ‗7 colonies‘ and interest groups
across the USA and Canada and has initiated over 170,000 members since its founding. It‘s a member of
the North-American Interfraternity Conference. Theta Chi Fraternity has had many brothers in a variety of
different fields: Armed Services, arts & entertainment, business & industry, engineering, government,
higher education, insurance, journalism, judiciary & law, religion, research, service organisations and
sports.
Omicron Delta Kappa, or ΟΓΚ, also known as ‗The Circle‘, or more commonly ‗ODK‘, is a national
leadership honour society, founded on the 3rd December 1914, at Washington & Lee University by 15
student and faculty leaders. Chapters, known as ‗Circles‘, are located on over 300 college campuses.
Membership in the Omicron Delta Kappa Society is regarded as one of the ‗highest collegiate honours‘
that can be awarded to an individual, along with Phi Kappa Phi and Phi Beta Kappa. Some ‗Circles‘ limit
membership to less than the top one quarter of one percent of students on their respective campuses.
The Honour Society of Phi Kappa Phi [or simply Phi Kappa Phi or ΦΚΦ] was founded in 1897, fourth
after other similar academic societies: Phi Beta Kappa for the Liberal Arts and Sciences, Tau Beta Pi for