Fraternities, sororities, and housing groups
Fraternities and sororities
live on campus, in pre-selected upperclassman halls. Grove City's
fraternities and sororities are not affiliated with any national groups.
Over the years, many sororities and one fraternity, Chi Delta Epsilon,
have permanently died out. The most recent sorority to become defunct
was the short-lived Delta Chi Omega, which was founded in 1980 and
lasted approximately one decade. Some fraternities have died out
(meaning all their active members graduated or left the college) and
been reinstituted via block classes.
Both fraternities and sororities are overseen by governing bodies.
The fraternities each send delegates to weekly meetings of the
Interfraternity Council. The sororities' counterpart organization, the
Pan-Hellenic Council, also meets each week. In the spring, the two
councils hold joint meetings to plan the annual Greek Games. The Greek
Games, a multi-day event which involved such activities as water balloon
tossing and egg dropping, have declined in notoriety at Grove City
College along with the size of Greek organizations; until the 1990s they
were well-known on campus, with the majority of the student body either
participating or spectating.
Strict regulations apply to students joining a Greek organization. At
the end of the year, all fraternities and sororities are required to
fill out a Community Living Privilege (CLP) application, which proves
community activities within the organization, activities for the whole
campus, activities benefiting the community, and philanthropy.
Male students who do not join fraternities can obtain block housing
privileges through one of nine organizations known as housing groups.
Grove City College housing groups are collections of
similarly-interested students which enjoy block housing, yet are not
fraternal or Greek in nature. Such groups were founded in the 1970s and
given permission to use Greek letters by the extant fraternities on
campus and the Grove City College administration. The first of these
organizations was Rho Rho Rho in 1973. There are no female housing
groups at the college.
Housing groups, unlike fraternities and sororities, have no
obligation to improve campus life and are not required to fill out a CLP
at the end of the year. Some Greek organizations have taken issue with
the purported failure of housing groups to abide according to the
original founding stipulations, which include having a common purpose
and limiting membership to those living in groups' respective dorm
halls.
Sounds like a joke?
