The College of William & Mary Fraternity and Sorority System

The College Of William & Mary Fraternity And Sorority System

The College of William & Mary fraternity and sorority system recognizes chapters of national organizations belonging to the Panhellenic Council, the Interfraternity Council (IFC) and the National Pan-Hellenic Council, and also recognizes one local fraternity without Greek letters (Queen's Guard) and the local chapter of one national fraternity (Kappa Sigma) that abandoned membership in an inter-Greek consortium. The school also offers a variety of honor and co-ed service fraternities as well. The United States' first known collegiate fraternity was founded at the College of William & Mary on December 5, 1776. Phi Beta Kappa is an academic honor society which is still the highest academic honor a college student can be awarded. Some fraternities and/or sororities are limited to graduate students at William & Mary, while others may only be joined at the undergraduate level. Other Greek-letter organizations operate without recognition or approval from college administrators.

Six on-campus fraternity houses are located in the same complex of interconnected buildings known as "The Units". Each house, which can hold up to 36 occupants, has access to a patio area as well as a large social room for official fraternity events. One on-campus fraternity, AEΠ, is located in the lodges, while the Delta Phi fraternity has its own house on Armistead Ave., adjacent to sorority court. Additionally, beginning in the fall of 2010, four fraternities relocated to the college's slightly off-campus complex, known as the Ludwell Apartments. Each organization shall occupy a single building, consisting of a number of apartments.

Beginning in the Fall of 2013, 11 new fraternity houses and a Greek community center will be built. Each of these buildings will house 17 men.

All sororities are located off-campus in a complex known as "Sorority Court" on Richmond Road directly across from the Wren Building and the President's House. There are twelve individual houses in the area with eleven of them used by sororities (the other is a fraternity). Sorority Court is within walking distance of Merchants Square in Colonial Williamsburg and the campus quad, the Sunken Garden.

As of the end of the 2007–08 academic calendar year, 25% of undergraduate men and 27% of undergraduate women participated in the Greek system. The average fraternity size was 38 while the average sorority size was 70.

Note: Numbers after the dashes indicate the fraternity's or sorority's year of its national founding.