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 (Queens' Guard) and the local chapter of one national fraternity (Kappa Sigma) that abandoned membership in an inter-Greek consortium.[1] The school also offers a variety of honor and co-ed service fraternities as well. The first collegiate fraternity within the present borders of the United States, the Latin-letter F.H.C. Society, was founded at the College of William & Mary on November 11, 1750. The new country's first Greek-letter fraternity was founded at the College on December 5, 1776, though the Phi Beta Kappa Society no longer is a social fraternity but, instead, the leading American academic honor society. Some fraternities and sororities are limited to graduate students at William & Mary, while others may only be joined at the undergraduate level. Still other Greek-letter organizations operate without recognition or approval[2] from college administrators.[3]

In the Autumn of 2013, 11 new fraternity houses and a Greek community center were opened. Each of the 11 new houses accommodates 17 men.[4]

Six fraternities previously lived in fraternity houses located on campus in a complex of interconnected buildings known as "The Units". Each house, which can hold up to 36 residents, opens onto a patio and holds a large social room for official fraternity events. These buildings have now been converted into freshman dormitories known as the "Green and Gold Village". Before erection of the new fraternity houses, one on-campus fraternity, Alpha Epsilon Pi, was located in the lodges (which served as fraternity houses after the Second World War, then were used for classrooms and faculty offices), and the Delta Phi fraternity had retained its own house on Armistead Avenue, adjacent to sorority court. After the new fraternity buildings were opened, Delta Phi acquired one of the 11 new fraternity houses and Alpha Epsilon Pi took over Delta Phi's old house on Armistead Avenue.

All sororities are located near the Old Campus of the College, 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 complex. Sorority Court is within walking distance of Merchants Square in Colonial Williamsburg and of the campus quadrangle known as the Sunken Garden.

At the end of the 2007–08 academic calendar year, 25% of undergraduate men and 27% of undergraduate women participated in the Greek system.[1] The average fraternity size was 38 while the average sorority size was 70.[1]

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