TRAPPED IN A MASONIC WORLD

Multicultural Fraternities
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The National Multicultural Greek Council [NMGU], formed at the University of Georgia [UGA] were
founded by three fraternal organisations: Delta Phi Lambda Sorority Inc., Lambda Phi Epsilon Fraternity
Inc., which are both Asian-interest linked, and Sigma Beta Rho Fraternity Inc., a multicultural fraternity.
Today and in addition there is the Lambda Theta Alpha Latin Sorority, Inc., and the Lambda Sigma
Upsilon Latino Fraternity, Inc., which are both with Latin interests in mind, and Sigma Sigma Rho
Sorority, Inc., a South-Asian Interest Sorority. Kappa Alpha Psi, is an African American Fraternity
established at Indiana University, Bloomington, in 1911, the first Chinese fraternity was established at
Cornell in 1916, and Sigma Iota was the first Hispanic fraternity established at Louisiana State University
in 1904, which then later merged with other Hispanic fraternities around the US to form Phi Iota Alpha,
the oldest Latino fraternity in existence, in 1931.
The Phi Sigma Alpha fraternity in Puerto Rico can also trace its roots back to Sigma Iota, and Puerto
Rico in general has many chapters of professional, honorary, and service fraternities and sororities from
the US, such as Sigma Lambda Beta International. There are now 20 Latino fraternities in the National
Association of Latino Fraternal Organisations [NALFO]. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
[ULUC] currently has the largest Greek system in the world with 69 fraternities and 36 sororities. Sigma
Gamma Rho Sorority, a prominent historically African-American Sorority, currently has chapters in the
Virgin Islands, Germany, and Bermuda [6] .
There was a brief chapter of Chi Phi at Edinburgh, Scotland during the American Civil War to
accommodate Southern students studying abroad, and another for American servicemen who were still
college students during World War II, though there has been no real export of the system to Europe, and
the reason many of us over here in the UK and Europe are not so familiar with the Greek fraternity system,
though on saying that, the Zeta Psi fraternity became bi-continental on the 3rd May 2008 with the
chartering of Iota Omicron at the University of Oxford in England. [6]
Likewise, Zeta Psi and Sigma Alpha Mu have chapters in Canada, when in November 2002, the Zeta
Psi and Kappa Alpha Order chapters at the University of Virginia were suspended and subsequently
cleared after the fraternities held a Halloween party where guests were photographed wearing blackfaces
and dressed up as Uncle Sam, and the tennis players Venus and Serena Williams.
The Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc, a historically black sorority founded in Washington, DC, USA, was the
very first Greek-lettered organisation ever to establish a chapter in Africa in 1948, and today they have
chapters in the USA, Africa, Europe, and the Caribbean.
Tau Kappa Epsilon has chapters in Canada and a chapter in Germany. Sigma Thêta Pi is present in
Canada and France, and Alpha Gamma Delta and Alpha Phi which have seven and six Canadian chapters
respectively.
In 2009, Alpha Epsilon Pi established its Aleph chapter at the Interdisciplinary Centre in Herzliya,
Israel. Some of these social fraternities are expressly religiously inclined and founded as so, though today,
there more likely non-sectarian, Alpha Chi Rho was founded as Christian, Zeta Beta Tau was Jewish, with
over 140,000 initiated ‗brothers‘, and over 90 student chapter locations. The Sigma Alpha Mu, were
established, in part, in response to restrictive clauses that existed in many social fraternities laws barring
Jewish membership, which were removed in the mid-20th century, and has 140 active chapters in the
United States, Canada, and Israel with a membership of over 8,500 undergraduates. [6]
Though these Greek fraternities are of American origin, other countries have similar institutions that are
in some cases significantly older, and in countries such as Germany, fall under the umbrella term of
Studentenverbindung, which is a student corporation in a German-speaking country similar to fraternities
in the US, but mostly older and going back to other kinds of origins.
In the UK, student dining clubs such as the Bullingdon exist, which are similar to American eating
clubs. In Portugal, there are also fraternities, especially in Coimbra, the most prestigious college city in the
country, and one of the oldest in Europe. These houses, called ‗Repúblicas‘, are independent, protected by
law, and run by students, that first appeared in 1309 when King D. Dinis first ordered to build student
housing for the recently founded University of Coimbra, in 1290. There are 27 Republics in Coimbra, 3 in
Lisbon, where they have a wonderful obelisk, and 1 in Oporto. Republicas are also found at the Federal
University of Ouro Preto, and at the Federal University of Lavras [UFLA] in Lavras City, Brazil. In