The list of University of Minnesota fraternities and sororities is extensive. Approximately 11% of undergraduates, 3,400 students, participate in one of the sixty chapters of social fraternities or sororities at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities campus. Participation in affiliated groups associated with the Greek System such as honor, service, and professional fraternities bring total Greek System affiliation figures significantly higher. Counting past and present, more than half of the university's 200 Greek organizations remain active today, the pioneers of which have had a presence on the University of Minnesota campus for over 145 years. The university's Greek System includes professional fraternities, honor societies, service fraternities, and religious fraternities along with the highly visible residential undergrad academic and social chapters.
A comprehensive list of chapters, past and present, segmented by category, follows this brief overview of what these societies are and how they evolved. References for each group show current and former property addresses either owned or leased. Contact information is provided via the references, where available.
The terms "Fraternity" and "Sorority" are used somewhat interchangeably, with men's and co-ed groups always using fraternity, and women's groups using either fraternity or sorority. For convenience, the term "Greek Letter Society" is a generic substitute. The word, "Greek," in this case refers to the use of Greek Letters for each society's name, and not to Greek ethnicity.
Historical sketch
The University of Minnesota Greek system is over 145 years old, having grown steadily with the rapid growth of the university. Its first men's fraternity, Chi Psi, dates to 1874, and its first women's fraternity, Kappa Kappa Gamma, dates to 1880, long before the term 'sorority' was popularized as a term for the women's 'houses'.
Yet these pioneer chapters did not themselves mark the beginnings of a fraternal presence at the school. Many of Minnesota's early University presidents and department heads were fraternity men or women from 'back East,' having experienced undergraduate life in the flourishing literary societies and old-line fraternities that in turn were born out of America's earliest institutions of higher learning. These include William Watts Folwell, the university's first president, who was a member of Alpha Delta Phi at Hobart College, Cyrus Northrop, who was both an Alpha Sigma Phi AND a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon at Yale, Ada Comstock, Dean of Women, and a member of Delta Gamma at Minnesota, president George Vincent who was also a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon at Yale, and president James Morrill who was also an Alpha Sigma Phi, at Ohio State.
Still, because Minnesota's is one of the oldest fraternity systems in the nation, many of the university's Greek chapters are consequently among the oldest of their respective organizations, and often have single-letter or first-series chapter names or designations. Similarly, the age, prestige, size and breadth of the University of Minnesota have resulted in its hosting many of the nation's honor and professional fraternities for most disciplines. As early as 1925, the Minnesota Gopher yearbook reported the presence of 25 national academic fraternities, 18 national academic sororities, and 33 national professional chapters on campus. Most of these, undergrad or professional, are (or were) residential.
Over 90 years later, as of 2017, Minnesota hosts 37 academic fraternities, 23 academic sororities, 61 honors societies, 31 professional societies, and 4 service- or religious-focused chapters.
Impact on campus, and population
Since inception, these organizations have delivered an outsized influence and benefit to the campus: The first indicator of this impact is the fact of hundreds of pages devoted to the myriad of Greek Letter organizations profiled in each issue of the Minnesota Gopher Yearbook during its century-long publication run. These organizations have served as a primary hub of the student experience at the university for their entire existence, for active members, regular guests, and alumni.