National Panhellenic Conference

National Panhellenic Conference
Data
Established	1902
Members	26
Continent	North America
Country	United States and Canada
Organization type	Trade organization

The National Panhellenic Conference (NPC), founded in 1902, is an umbrella organization for 26 (inter)national women's sororities.

Each member group is autonomous as a social, Greek-letter society of college women and alumnae. Members are represented on over 650 college and university campuses in the United States and Canada and in over 4,600 alumnae associations, making up over 4 million sorority women.^[1]

The National Panhellenic Conference provides support and guidance for its 26-member international sororities/women's fraternities and serves as the national voice on contemporary issues of sorority life. Founded in 1902, NPC is one of the oldest and largest women's membership organizations representing more than 4 million women at 655 college/university campuses and 4,500 local alumnae chapters in the U.S. and Canada. Each year, NPC-affiliated collegians and alumnae donate more than $5 million to worthy causes, provide $2.8 million in scholarships to women and volunteer 500,000 hours in their communities.^[2]

Members

Sorority	Year Founded	Year Joined NPC
Alpha Chi Omega	1885	1903
Alpha Delta Pi	1851	1909
Alpha Epsilon Phi	1909	1951
Alpha Gamma Delta	1904	1909
Alpha Omicron Pi	1897	1905
Alpha Phi	1872	1902
Alpha Sigma Alpha	1901	1951
Alpha Sigma Tau	1899	1951
Alpha Xi Delta	1893	1904
Chi Omega	1895	1903
Delta Delta Delta	1888	1902
Delta Gamma	1873	1902
Delta Phi Epsilon	1917	1951
Delta Zeta	1902	1910
Gamma Phi Beta	1874	1902
Kappa Alpha Theta	1870	1902
Kappa Delta	1897	1912
Kappa Kappa Gamma	1870	1902
Phi Mu	1852	1911
Phi Sigma Sigma	1913	1951
Pi Beta Phi	1867	1902
Sigma Delta Tau	1917	1951
Sigma Kappa	1874	1905
Sigma Sigma Sigma	1898	1951
Theta Phi Alpha	1912	1951
Zeta Tau Alpha	1898	1909

History

Early histories of women's fraternities contain accounts of "rushing and pledging agreements" or "compacts" among fraternities on various campuses, and also many stories of cooperation and mutual assistance. However, no actual Panhellenic organization existed and no uniform practices were observed.

By 1902, it was obvious that some standards were needed, so the women of Alpha Phi invited Pi Beta Phi, Kappa Alpha Theta, Kappa Kappa Gamma, Delta Gamma, Gamma Phi Beta, Delta Delta Delta, Alpha Chi Omega, and Chi Omega to a conference in Chicago on May 24. Alpha Chi Omega and Chi Omega were unable to attend. The remaining seven groups met and the session resulted in the organization of the first interfraternity association and the first intergroup organization on college campuses. National Interfraternity Conference for men's fraternities was organized in 1909, now called the North-American Interfraternity Conference.

This meeting, and the next few, resulted in several mutual agreements, especially regarding pledging. Up to this time, no guidelines had been set, and women could be pledged to groups before enrolling in college and, indeed, even belong to more than one group.

The fact that NPC is a "Conference" is significant to the NPC philosophy because the organization is a conference, not a congress. It enacts no legislation except for the conduct of its own meetings. Other than the basic Unanimous Agreements which all groups have voted to observe, NPC confines itself to recommendations and advice, and acts as a court of final appeal in any College Panhellenic difficulty. One of its greatest services is providing Area Advisors for College Panhellenics and Alumnae Panhellenics.

AES merger with NPC

Members of Sigma Sigma Sigma and Alpha Sigma Alpha organized the Association of Pedagogical Sororities on July 10, 1915. The membership consisted of sororities, who were primarily located on state campuses where women entering the educational field were predominant. In 1917, Pi Kappa Sigma and Delta Sigma Epsilon joined the association, followed by Theta Sigma Upsilon in 1925, Alpha Sigma Tau in 1926, and Pi Delta Theta in 1931. At the third biennial conference, the name of the association was changed to the Association of Educational Sororities (AES). Later, the word "Educational" was changed to "Education".

The AES was a strong group of leaders that focused not only on educational (providing scholarships) and women-centric issues, but cooperated to support issues outside of the sorority world including defense projects during World War II. One of the projects started by the AES member groups resulted in what is today the world-renowned Leader Dogs for the Blind School in Rochester, Michigan.

After much work on the part of NPC and AES, on November 12, 1947, the six AES sororities were unanimously accepted as associate members of NPC. At the same time, five other sororities were also admitted, including Beta Gamma at the University of Colorado. In December 1951, the six sororities became full members of NPC.

Since that time, three have merged with other NPC member groups leaving Alpha Sigma Alpha, Alpha Sigma Tau, and Sigma Sigma Sigma as the remaining former-AES members.

Notes

References

1. "About NPC". NPC. 2009. Retrieved 2009-07-25.
2. "National Panhellenic Conference". National Panhellenic Conference. Retrieved 2010-01-01.

External links

• Official website