Professional fraternity

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. [ [http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/cor/coord/titleixstat.htm Title IX] , " [http://www.usdoj.gov/ United States Department of Justice] "] 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)). [" [http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/cor/byagency/34cfr106.pdf] Code of Federal Regulations, PART 106: NONDISCRIMINATION ON THE BASIS OF SEX IN EDUCATION PROGRAMS OR ACTIVITIES RECEIVING FEDERAL FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE]

Prior to Title IX, many professional fraternities were all male and most professional sororities/women’s fraternities were all female. Several of these professional fraternities and sororities even considered themselves both professional and social organizations because they emphasized the social aspects of their activities. During the ensuing years since the enactment of Title IX, single-sex professional fraternities and sororities became coeducational to conform to Title IX. Several organizations simply opened their membership both men and women. For example, Phi Chi (medicine) opened membership to women in 1973; Phi Beta (music and speech) opened membership to men in 1976; and Delta Omicron (music) opened membership to men in 1979. A few single-sex groups merged with other organizations, such as Phi Delta Delta, a women’s professional law fraternity, merged with Phi Alpha Delta (law) in 1972. Many of the professional sororities also changed their names to use the term "fraternity" when they opened their membership to men. For example, Mu Phi Epsilon (music) changed its name from sorority to fraternity when membership was opened to men in 1977.

Despite the fact that Title IX was enacted in 1972, there continues to be a small number of professional fraternities and sororities or their chapters that have not become co-educational and therefore, do not conform to Title IX. Generally, these groups still claim to be both professional and social organizations, for instance, Alpha Gamma Rho (men in agriculture), Alpha Omega Epsilon (women in engineering), and Sigma Phi Delta (men in engineering). Meanwhile, Alpha Omega Epsilon and Sigma Alpha each have collegiate chapters that have joined their respective women’s Panhellenic Councils on campuses in order to stay female only. However, because the primary goal of professional fraternities is to advance the interests of specific professions including preparing students to be leaders in 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.

It is interesting to note that a few social fraternities and sororities have membership practices of selecting their members primarily from students enrolled in particular majors or areas of study, including Phi Mu Alpha, Phi Sigma Rho, Sigma Alpha Iota, and Triangle. Nevertheless, these groups are social, rather than professional, organizations and do not claim to be professional organizations. Although they select members from students in a particular field of study, like a professional fraternity, they are single-sex social organizations 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 officially granted exemption from Title IX by the DOE to remain single-sex due to being designated as social organizations because of their social focus include Sigma Alpha Iota in 1981 [cite web | url =http://www.sigmaalphaiota.org/home/Portals/0/CPM/Chapter1_CPM.pdf| title = Sigma Alpha Iota| publisher =Sigma Alpha Iota |] and Phi Mu Alpha in 1983 [cite web | url =http://www.sinfonia.org/history.asp| title = Phi Mu Alpha| publisher =Phi Mu Alpha|] .

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

* ΑΖ - Alpha Zeta - Agriculture
* ΑΓΡ - Alpha Gamma Rho - Agriculture - men's fraternity (See above for issues with Title IX)
* ΣΑ - Sigma Alpha - Agriculture - primarily women

Business

* ΑΚΨ - Alpha Kappa Psi - Business
* ΓΙΣ - Gamma Iota Sigma - Insurance, Risk Management, Actuary Science
* ΔΣΠ - Delta Sigma Pi - Business
* ΦΓΝ - Phi Gamma Nu - Business
* ΦΧΘ - Phi Chi Theta - Business

Engineering & Architecture

* ΑΡΧ - Alpha Rho Chi - Architecture
* ΑΩΕ - Alpha Omega Epsilon - Engineering - women's sorority (See above for issues with Title IX)
* ΚHΚ - Kappa Eta Kappa - Electrical and Computer Engineering
* ΘΤ - Theta Tau - Engineering
* ΣΦΔ - Sigma Phi Delta - Computer Science and Engineering - men's fraternity (See above for issues with Title IX)
* ΖΦΣ - Zeta Phi Sigma - Engineering- local women's sorority [http://www.engineering.vcu.edu/zps/] (See above for issues with Title IX)
* Scarab - Architecture [http://technews.iit.edu/pdf/156/10.pdf]

Law

* ΔΘΦ - Delta Theta Phi - Law [http://www.deltathetaphi.org/]
* 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
* ΑΨ - 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 - primarily women
* KTE - Kappa Tau Epsilon - Podiatry
* ΚΨ - Kappa Psi - Pharmacy
* ΛΚΣ - Lambda Kappa Sigma - Pharmacy - primarily women
* ΜΣΦ - Mu Sigma Phi - University of the Philippines Medicine
* ΣΜΔ - Sigma Mu Delta - Medicine
* ΣΦХ -Sigma Phi Chi - Chiropractic women's sorority (See above for issues with Title IX)
* 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
* PΠΦ - Rho Pi Phi - Pharmacy

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 - primarily men
* ΤΒΣ - Tau Beta Sigma - Band - primarily women
* ΜΦΕ - Mu Phi Epsilon - Music

Other

* ΑΗΡ - Alpha Eta Rho - Aviation
* ΑΧΣ - Alpha Chi Sigma - Chemistry
* ΓΕΤ - Gamma Epsilon Tau - Printing and Digital Media [http://www.gammaepsilontau.org/]
* ΖΦΗ - Zeta Phi Eta - Communication arts & sciences
* 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

External links

* [http://www.greekopedia.com/ Greekopedia: A wiki for Fraternities and Sororities]
* [http://www.profraternity.org/ Professional Fraternity Association webpage]

References