Everything about Professional Fraternity totally explained
Professional fraternities, in the
North American fraternity system, are organizations whose primary purpose is to promote the interests of a particular profession and whose membership is restricted to students and faculty members in that particular field of
professional education or study. This may be contrasted with
service fraternities and sororities, whose primary purpose is community service, and general or social
fraternities and sororities, whose primary purposes are generally aimed towards some other aspect, such as the development of character, friendship, leadership, or literary ability.
Professional fraternities are often confused with
honor societies because of their focus on a specific discipline. Professional fraternities are actually significantly different from honor societies in that honor societies are associations designed to provide recognition of the past achievement of those who are invited to membership. Honor society membership, in most cases, requires no period of
pledging, and new candidates may be immediately inducted into membership after meeting predetermined academic criteria and paying a one-time membership fee. Because of their purpose of recognition, most honor societies will have much higher academic achievement requirements for membership. A few groups, such as
Phi Sigma Pi, are considered to be both a fraternity and an honors organization. These honor fraternities require higher GPAs, like an honor society, but operate as a brotherhood, like a fraternity.
Professional fraternities, on the other hand, work to build brotherhood among members and cultivate the strengths of members in order to promote their profession and to provide assistance to one another in their mutual areas of professional study. Membership in a professional fraternity may be the result of a pledge process, much like a social fraternity, and members are expected to remain loyal and active in the organization for life. Within their professional field of study, their membership is exclusive; however, they may initiate members who belong to other types of fraternities.
History
The first professional fraternity was founded at
Transylvania University in
Lexington, Kentucky in
1819: the Kappa Lambda Society of Aesculapius, established for the purpose of bringing together students of the medical profession. The fraternity lasted until about
1858.
Of the professional fraternities still in existence, the oldest is
Phi Delta Phi law fraternity, founded at the
University of Michigan in
1869.
Title IX Applied to Professional Fraternities
Professional fraternities, in the United States fraternity system, are required to be
co-educational by federal law under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (commonly referred to as "
Title IX,"). This federal law prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any college or university receiving federal financial assistance. However, the membership practices of social fraternities and sororities are exempt from Title IX in section (A)(6)(a). The Department of Education (DOE) regulations adopted pursuant to Title IX also allow such an exception for "the membership practices of social fraternities and sororities." (34 C.F.R. Sec. 106.14(a)).
Professional fraternities, like service fraternities and honor societies, must be open to members of both genders since they don't have an exemption from Title IX similar to the one given for social fraternities and sororities. Because the primary goal of professional fraternities is to prepare students to be leaders in specific professions, and to advance the interests of those professions, under Title IX, it would be considered discrimination to limit such opportunities to one sex, and federal funding could be withheld from any institution that discriminates on the basis of sex.
A few social fraternities and sororities select their members from students enrolled in particular majors or areas of study, including
Phi Mu Alpha,
Phi Sigma Rho,
Sigma Alpha Iota, and
Triangle. Although these social organizations select members from students in a particular field of study, like a profesional fraternity, they're single sex and are allowed to be so because their primary purposes are toward the development of character, friendship, leadership, or literary ability, like other social fraternities and sororities. Examples of groups that have been been officially granted exemption from Title IX by the DOE to remain single sex because of their social focus and, therefore, are designated as a social, rather than professional, fraternal organizations include
Sigma Alpha Iota in 1981 and
Phi Mu Alpha in 1983 .
Umbrella Organizations
Most major professional fraternities are members of the
Professional Fraternity Association. This group resulted in
1978 from a merger of the
Professional Interfraternity Conference (PIC) (for men's groups) and the
Professional Panhellenic Association (PPA) (for women's groups).
List of professional fraternities
Agriculture
Architecture
ΑΡΧ - Alpha Rho Chi - Architecture
Scarab - Architecture
Business
ΑΚΨ - Alpha Kappa Psi - Business
BΓΣ - Beta Gamma Sigma - International Business Honor Society
ΓΙΣ - Gamma Iota Sigma - Insurance, Risk Management, Actuary Science
ΔΣΠ - Delta Sigma Pi - Business
ΠΣΕ - Pi Sigma Epsilon - Sales and Marketing
ΡΕ - Rho Epsilon - Real Estate
ΣΙΕ - Sigma Iota Epsilon- National Honorary and Professional Management Fraternity
ΦΓΝ - Phi Gamma Nu - Business
ΦΧΘ - Phi Chi Theta - Business
Engineering
ΑΩΕ - Alpha Omega Epsilon - Engineering
ΘΤ - Theta Tau - Engineering
ΣΦΔ - Sigma Phi Delta - Computer Science and Engineering
ΦΛ - Phi Lambda - Computer Science and Engineering
ΖΦΣ - Zeta Phi Sigma - Engineering
Law
ΔΘΦ - Delta Theta Phi - Law
ΦΑΔ - Phi Alpha Delta — Law
ΦΔΦ - Phi Delta Phi - Law
Medicine
AΓK - Alpha Gamma Kappa - Podiatry
ΑZΩ - Alpha Zeta Omega- Pharmacy
ΑΤΔ - Alpha Tau Delta - Nursing
ΑΩ - Alpha Omega - Dentistry
ΑΥ - Alpha Psi Fraternity - Veterinary Medicine
BΣ - Beta Sigma - Medicine
ΔΕΜ - Delta Epsilon Mu - Health
ΔΣΔ - Delta Sigma Delta - Dentistry
ΚΓΔ - Kappa Gamma Delta - Medicine
ΚΕ - Kappa Epsilon - Pharmacy
KTE - Kappa Tau Epsilon - Podiatry
ΚΨ - Kappa Psi - Pharmacy
ΛΚΣ - Lambda Kappa Sigma - Pharmacy- for women
ΜΣΦ - Mu Sigma Phi - University of the Philippines Medicine
ΣΜΔ - Sigma Mu Delta - Medicine
ΣфХ -Sigma Phi Chi- Chiropractic women's professional sorority
ΦΑΣ - Phi Alpha Sigma - Medicine
ΦΔΕ - Phi Delta Epsilon - Medicine
ΦΔΧ - Phi Delta Chi - Pharmacy
ΦKM - Phi Kappa Mu - Medicine - University of the Philippines
ΦΡΣ - Phi Rho Sigma - Medicine
ΦΧ - Phi Chi - Medicine
ΩΤΣ - Omega Tau Sigma - Veterinary Medicine
Military, Government, & Foreign Service
ΔΟΣ - Delta Omicron Sigma - Military veterans
ΔΦΕ - Delta Phi Epsilon - Foreign Service
Scabbard and Blade - Military
Music
ΔΟ - Delta Omicron - Music
ΚΚΨ - Kappa Kappa Psi - Band
ΜΦΕ - Mu Phi Epsilon - Music
ΤΒΣ - Tau Beta Sigma - Band
Service
AIO - Alpha Iota Omicron - Networking/Community Service
ΓΒΣ - Gamma Beta Sigma - Community Service
ΑΦΩ - Alpha Phi Omega - Community Service
Other
ΑΘΩΣ - Alpha Theta Omega Sigma - Philippine Professional
ΑEΖ - Alpha Epsilon Zeta - South Asian Professional
ΑΕΡ - Alpha Epsilon Rho - Broadcasting
ΑΗΡ - Alpha Eta Rho - Aviation
ΑΧΣ - Alpha Chi Sigma - Chemistry
ΓΕΤ - Gamma Epsilon Tau - Printing and Digital Media
ΖΦΗ - Zeta Phi Eta - Communication arts & sciences
ΛΑ - Lambda Alpha - Anthropology
ΡΠΦ - Rho Pi Phi - Pharmacology
ΦΑΤ - Phi Alpha Tau - Communicative Arts
ΦΒ - Phi Beta - Creative and Performing Arts
ΦΣΠ - Phi Sigma Pi - National Honor Fraternity
ΓΣA - Gamma Sigma Alpha - National Academic Greek Honors Society
EΛ - Epsilon Lambda - Greek Leadership (exclusive to Bowling Green State University)Further Information
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