Fraternity & Sorority Life

History

Since 1966, fraternities and sororities have contributed to the history, achievements, pride, and overall student experience on campus and within the surrounding Tampa Bay community.

Today our community fosters membership opportunities in 45+ distinctly unique organizations across 4 governing councils reflecting the diversity of our USF student body with each chapter embracing our four core values: Integrity, Learning, Leadership, and Service.

The fraternity and sorority community embodies 5% of the approximate 36,000 undergraduate student population. Our members are heavily involved in leadership opportunities within Student Government, Orientation, USF Ambassadors, and much more.

Today's FSL chapters are the largest and most visible values-based organizations on campus. Offering some of the most successful leadership development programs and community service opportunities, fraternity and sorority life is a pillar for the community. We serve as a part of the largest network of volunteers in the nation contributing 45,000 of more than 10 million hours of service annually.


1960

  • 1967 Fraternity and Sorority Community at USF is established. Founding organizations were Panhellenic and IFC organizations.

  • 1968 Conversations regarding the establishment of Greek housing begin.

1970

  • 1972 First NPHC organization established at USF.

  • 1973 March - A proposal is submitted for fraternities to purchase apartments from the USF Foundation.

  • 1973 April - There was no interest on behalf of the fraternities to purchase the apartment complex from the Foundation.

  • 1978 April 25th - Order of Omega (OOO) was chartered at USF. OOO is the FSL Honor Society which represents the top 5% of the community in high GPAs/academic performance.

1980

  • 1983 Plans for Greek housing located on West Holly Drive and Magnolia are stopped due to a lack of interest in part by Greek organizations.

  • 1985 Members of Sigma Nu Housing Corporation meet with Vice President of Student Affairs Dan Walbolt to again entertain the notion of Greek Park/Village at USF.

  • 1986 USF identified the property on the corner of 50th Street and Fowler Avenue as the new Greek Park.

1990

  • 1991 February - Greek housing location is moved because the established location was unsuitable for building housing. The University redesigns Greek Park and places it off of Elm Street.

  • 1992 - Black Panhellenic Council is formed, which represents the Historically-Black fraternites and sororities.
  • 1994 First multicultural Greek organization is founded at USF.

  • 1998 Black Panhellenic Council becomes the National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC). Also, conversations regarding groundbreaking for Greek Village begin between President Castor and Vice President Nixon.

  • 1998 July - USF Greek Housing Association (GHA) officially formed. GHA is the governing body of the Housing Corporation Presidents for each of the on-campus properties.

2000

  • 2001 Unified Greek Council (UGC) is established. UGC is comprised of culturally-based organizations representing Latinx/o/a, Asian, South Asian, and multicultural interests.

  • 2004 Greek Village officially opens.

  • 2006 Office of Greek Life becomes a stand-alone office reporting directly to the Dean of Students. Number of staff members is increased from one Coordinator and two Graduate Assistants to one Director, one Coordinator, two Graduate Assistants and an Administrative Specialist.

  • 2008 An additional Coordinator is added to the office staff.

  • 2010 Standards of Fraternal Excellence and Fraternity and Sorority Expansion Committee are established.

2014

  • Unified Greek Council (UGC) was renamed to Multicultural Greek Council (MGC). MGC is comprised of culturally-based organizations representing Latinx/o/a, Asian, South Asian, and multicultural interests

2019

  • National PanHellenic Council (NPHC) Plaza built in 2019, the first, non-Historically Black College and University (HBCU), state institution in Florida to build physical representation for the NPHC