SORORITY TERMINOLOGY
Here are some of the terms that you may hear before, during, and after going through Panhellenic Association Formal Recruitment!
Active: An initiated fraternity or sorority member who is affiliated with a campus chapter.
Alumna: A graduated member of a Women's sorority/fraternity (plural is alumnae).
Badge: The badge of an initiated member is received during the initiation ceremony and worn in a designated location.
Bid: A formal invitation for membership from a Greek-letter organization.
Big Sister: An initiated member of a sorority who serves as a sponsor, advisor or special friend to a new member, guiding them through their new member program or initiation.
Chapter: A term used to describe the collegiate group of a fraternity or sorority.
Chapter House: A house on campus where members of the organization live. Not all campuses have chapter houses. Some have designated rooms given to each sorority called Chapter Rooms, or a special dormitory where each group gets a floor. Some groups have no house or room and use whatever room is available at the university.
Colony: A term used to describe the collegiate group of a fraternity or sorority in a new organization on the campus.
Deferred Recruitment: Refers to a time when the formal recruitment process happens in the second semester.
Dues: Monthly or semesterly costs of being in a fraternity or sorority.
E-Board: Executive Board, also referred to in some sororities as Executive Council, which includes the elected executive officers of the chapter (i.e. President, Vice Presidents, Secretary, etc).
Founders: The founding sisters or brothers of the national sorority or fraternity.
Good Standing: A sorority or fraternity member who has fulfilled all membership obligations, such as paying their dues, maintaining the required GPA, etc.
Greeks: A casual term used to describe members affiliated with Greek-lettered organizations.
House: Many schools have houses dedicated to each Greek organization. In the literal term, this would be where they live. Some schools also refer to the entire organization as a house, for example “what house are you from” meaning “what sorority/ fraternity are you in”?
House Mom: Officially titled Resident Director, which refers to a person hired to manage the sorority house and supervise the home operations.
Infraction: When a sorority or a sorority member breaks a recruitment rule set forth by the Panhellenic council at her school.
Initiation: Formal admittance into the sorority/fraternity. The new members participate in a ceremony that marks formal admittance into the sorority/fraternity. The initiation ceremony is secret and rooted in history.
ISP (Intentional Single Preference): When a PNM will only accept a bid from one chapter of their choice, and refuses to rank any other chapter on their list during recruitment.
Legacy: A potential member whose grandparent, parent, brother or sister is a member of a fraternity or sorority.
Letters: The Greek letters of your sorority or fraternity name.
Little: Each new member is given a “big” sister that has been a mentor to her throughout her new member period. The new member is called a little. This bond remains even after the new member has initiated.
National Panhellenic Conference: The NPC website describes themselves as, “The National Panhellenic Conference will be the premier advocacy and support organization for its members, member groups, college and alumnae panhellenics and a proponent of women’s fraternity membership.” See our NPC Sororities page for more details.
Nationals: Every chapter is a member of a national organization which sets policies for the entire sorority or fraternity.
New Member: A potential member who has accepted a bid from a fraternity or sorority. May also be referred to as an "associate".
New Member Ceremony: This is the ceremony to recognize the official commitment to become a new member of the sorority or fraternity.
New Member Educator: This is an initiated member of the sorority/ fraternity who will serve as the new member class’ “teacher” of the chapter. She or he will be their guide throughout their new member period.
New Member Period: The time between pledging and initiation where the new member learns about the sorority before becoming a collegiate member. It is typically 8-10 weeks long.
New Member Program: The time period where the new member learns about their new sorority and fraternity before initiation. Lasts from Bid day until Initiation
No Frills: Formal recruitment where costumes, elaborate food, skits, etc are forbidden at all or most rounds. Designed to let sororities recruit on a level playing field, so a sorority with more funding can not out decorate a sorority with a smaller budget. Also used to prevent over-spending on recruitment, which is usually a large portion of a sorority budget.
Non-affiliated: Persons not involved with an inter/national Greek-letter organization. Often referred to as "independents".
Order of Omega: Members are juniors and seniors who are initiated members of a fraternity or sorority and have attained a high standard of leadership and scholarship in the Fraternity and Sorority Life Community.
Panhellenic Association (PA): PA is the governing body of the sororities affiliated with the National Panhellenic Conference chartered at NC State University. This organization provides leadership and programming for the chapters.
Philanthropy: Put simply, community service. Typically each sorority has a nationally and/or locally recognized non-profit agency that they donate time and money to; they refer to this as “their philanthropy”.
Potential New Member (PNM): An individual interested in becoming a member of a fraternity or sorority.
Preference: The final parties held by sororities during Recruitment. They are fancier than the previous parties and usually include a ritual that potential new members can participate in. Also known as Pref, or Final Dinners. This is the last party before PNM’s and chapters make their final decisions about membership.
Preference Cards: Potential new members sign this after the pref parties, indicating in order, which sororities of the ones whose parties they attended they liked the most. These cards, along with the sororities lists of members they would like, are used to match the PNM's and sororities with one another in a mutually selective process.
Probation: A member of a sorority or fraternity is put on probation if they have not fulfilled part of their membership, such as GPA requirement, financial obligations, or social standards. Typically members on probation cannot vote in chapter elections while on probation among other restrictions.
Quota/Total: The number of women to whom each PA sorority may extend bids.
Recruitment: Refers to the process by which PA chapters select new members.
Ritual: The inter/nationally endorsed traditional, secret initiation ceremonies of a fraternity or sorority.
Recruitment Counselor : A representative from a sorority that aids female potential members in the PA formal recruitment process.
Social/Mixer: When two organizations, usually a sorority and fraternity, get together to do a planned social activity.
Sorority Recruitment Counselor (SRC): A collegiate sorority member who disaffiliates from their individual chapter to help PNMs with an unbiased perspective through recruitment.
Strict Silence: The point from which recruitment starts until it ends, where no sisters in houses and PMN are allowed to speak about the details of recruitment.
Sister: A term used by sorority members to refer to one another.
Values Based Recruitment: Recruitment that focuses on conversations between chapter members and potential new members about organizational values and member organizations.
