FRATERNITY & SORORITY TERMS
Active: A
fully initiated member of a fraternity or sorority.
Alumni/Alumna: A
fraternity (Alumni) or sorority (Alumna) member who has graduated.
Associate/New Member: A
member of a fraternity or sorority who has not been initiated.
Badge: The
pin of an initiated member.
Bid: A formal
invitation to join a fraternity or sorority.
Big Bro/Big Sis: An
initiated member selected to mentor a new member.
Call: The
verbal greeting members give each other.
Chapter: The
local group of the larger national organization
Crossing: The
process of becoming an initiated member in African-American
fraternities and sororities.
Greek: Students
affiliated with a Greek letter fraternity or sorority.
Hazing: Any
type of action or activity undertaken by a group or organization
or a member of that group or organization in which members
or prospective members are subjected to activities which harass,
intimidate, physically exhaust, impart pain, cause undue mental
fatigue or mental distress, or which cause mutilation or alteration
of the body or parts of the body.
Initiate: An
initiated member of a fraternity or sorority (“active”).
Interfraternity Council (IFC): The
governing body of member fraternities (historically white fraternities).
Intake: The
process through which new members are admitted to join NPHC
fraternities and sororities.
Legacy: Someone
who has a close relative in a fraternity or sorority.
Line: What
a new member class is often called in a historically African-American
Greek letter organization.
National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC): The
governing body of member fraternities and sororities (historically
black organizations).
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