Professional fraternities and sororities

Professional fraternities, in the North American fraternity system, are organizations whose primary purpose is to promote the interests of a particular profession and whose membership is restricted to students in that particular field of professional education or study. This may be contrasted with service fraternities and sororities, whose primary purpose is community service, and social fraternities and sororities, whose primary purposes are generally aimed towards some other aspect, such as the development of character, friendship, leadership, or literary ability.
Professional fraternities are often confused with honor societies because of their focus on a specific discipline. Professional fraternities are significantly different from honor societies in that honor societies are associations designed to provide recognition of the past achievement of those who are invited to membership. Honor society membership, in most cases, requires no period of pledging, and new candidates may be immediately inducted into membership after meeting predetermined academic criteria and paying a one-time membership fee. Because of their purpose of recognition, most honor societies will have much higher academic achievement requirements for membership.
Professional fraternities, on the other hand, work to build brotherhood among members and cultivate the strengths of members to promote their profession and to provide assistance to one another in their mutual areas of professional study. Membership in a professional fraternity may be the result of a pledge process, much like a social fraternity, and members are expected to remain loyal and active in the organization for life. Within their professional field of study, their membership is exclusive; however, they may initiate members who belong to other types of fraternities.

History

The first professional fraternity was founded at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky in 1819: the Kappa Lambda Society of Aesculapius, established to bring together students of the medical profession. The fraternity lasted until about 1858.
Of the professional fraternities still in existence, the oldest is Phi Delta Phi founded at the University of Michigan in 1869; however, Phi Delta Phi changed its mission in 2012 to become an honor society for law school students.

Title IX applied to professional fraternities

In the United States fraternity system, professional fraternities are usually co-educational in accordance with Federal Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. This federal law discourages discrimination based on sex in any college or university receiving federal financial assistance. However, the membership practices of social fraternities and sororities are exempt from Title IX in section. The U.S. Department of Education regulations adopted under Title IX also allow such an exception for "the membership practices of social fraternities and sororities.".
Before Title IX, many professional fraternities were all male and most professional sororities/women's fraternities were all female. Several of these professional fraternities and sororities even considered themselves both professional and social organizations because they often emphasized the social aspects of their activities. During the ensuing years since the enactment of Title IX, single-sex professional fraternities and sororities became coeducational to conform to Title IX. Several organizations simply opened their membership to both men and women. For example, Phi Chi opened membership to women in 1973; Phi Beta opened membership to men in 1976; and Delta Omicron opened membership to men in 1979. A few single-sex groups merged with other organizations, such as Phi Delta Delta, a women's professional law fraternity, merged with Phi Alpha Delta in 1972.
Even though Title IX was enacted in 1972, there are still professional fraternities and sororities or their chapters that have not become coeducational and therefore, do not conform to Title IX. Generally, these groups still claim to be both professional and social organizations, for instance, Alpha Gamma Rho, Alpha Omega Epsilon, and Sigma Phi Delta.
Several social fraternities and sororities have membership practices of selecting their members primarily from students enrolled in particular majors or areas of study, including Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, Phi Sigma Rho, and Triangle. Nevertheless, these groups are social, rather than professional, organizations. Although they select members from students in a particular field of study, like a professional fraternity, they are single-sex social organizations because their purposes focus only on the social development of their members. Examples of groups that have been officially granted exemption from Title IX by the DOE to remain single-sex include Sigma Alpha Iota in 1981 and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia in 1983.

Umbrella organizations

Many professional fraternities, particularly those of the highest esteem and reputation, are members of the Professional Fraternity Association. This group resulted in 1978 from a merger of the Professional Interfraternity Conference and the Professional Panhellenic Association . In 2013, faced with an increase in campus policies that require student organizations to take all students, the PFA adopted a resolution against All Comers policies.

List of professional fraternities

Arts, literature, and media

Name	Symbols	Charter date and range	Emphasis	Scope	Type	Status
Delta Chi Xi	ΔΧΞ	2010	Dance	National	Fraternity, coed	Active
Delta Kappa Phi	ΔΚΦ	1899	Textiles	Local, Lowell Textile School	Fraternity	Active
Delta Kappa Alpha	ΔΚΑ	1936	Cinema	National	Gender Inclusive	Active
Gamma Epsilon Tau	ΓΕΤ	1953	Graphic artists honor society	National	Fraternity, coed	Active
Gamma Xi Phi	ΓΞΦ	2010	African American artists and creators	National	Fraternity, coed	Active
Lambda Phi Delta	ΛΦΔ	1917	Fine arts	National	Sorority	Inactive
Omega Xi Alpha	ΟΞΑ	1928	Journalism	Regional	Fraternity	Inactive
Phi Alpha Tau	ΦΑΤ	1902	Communicative arts	Local, Emerson College	Fraternity	Active
Phi Beta	ΦΒ	1912	Creative and performing arts	National	Fraternity, gender inclusive	Active
Phi Mu Gamma	ΦΜΓ	1921	Drama and oratory	National,	Sorority	Inactive
Phi Psi	ΦΨ	1903	Textile arts and manufacturing engineering	National	Fraternity, coed	Active
Theta Sigma Phi	ΘΣΦ	1909–1996	Journalism and communication	National	Fraternity, women	Inactive
Zeta Phi Eta	ΖΦΗ	1893	Communication arts and sciences	National	Fraternity, coed	Active

Agriculture

Name	Symbols	Charter date and range	Emphasis	Scope	Type	Status
Alpha Gamma Rho	ΑΓΡ	1904	Agriculture	International	Fraternity	Active
Alpha Gamma Sigma	ΑΓΣ	1923	Agriculture	National	Fraternity	Active
Alpha Tau Alpha	ΑΤΑ	1921	Agriculture and extension education	National	Fraternity	Active
Alpha Zeta	ΑΖ	1897	Agriculture and natural resources	National	Fraternity, coed	Active
Delta Theta Sigma	ΔΘΣ	1906	Agriculture	National	Fraternity	Active
Sigma Alpha	ΣΑ	1978	Agriculture	National	Sorority	Active

Business and economics

Name	Symbols	Charter date and range	Emphasis	Scope	Type	Status
Alpha Kappa Psi	ΑΚΨ	1904	Business	International	Fraternity, coed	Active
Alpha Iota	ΑΙ	1905	Business	National	Sorority	Active
Delta Sigma Pi	ΔΣΠ	1907	Business	National	Fraternity, coed	Active
Epsilon Nu Tau	ΕΝΤ	2008	Entrepreneurship	National	Fraternity, coed	Active
Eta Phi Beta	ΗΦΒ	1942	Business, African American	National	Sorority	Active
Eta Rho Sigma	ΗΡΣ	2020	Business	National	Sorority/Women	Active
Kappa Eta Phi	ΚΗΦ	2011	Business, International Business	Local	Fraternity, coed	Active
Gamma Iota Sigma	ΓΙΣ	1966	Insurance, risk management, actuarial sciences	International	Fraternity, coed	Active
Iota Phi Lambda	ΙΦΛ	1929	Business and professional African Americans	National	Sorority	Active
Lambda Kappa Mu	ΛΚΜ	1937	Business and professional African Americans	National	Sorority	Active
Omicron Delta Epsilon	ΟΔΕ	1963	Economics honor society	International	Society, coed	Active
Phi Chi Theta	ΦΧΘ	1924	Business	National	Women's fraternity, coed	Active
Phi Gamma Nu	ΦΓΝ	1924	Business	National	Sorority, coed	Active
Phi Theta Kappa	ΦΘΚ	1918–1924	Business administration, commerce, accounting	National	Sorority	Inactive
Pi Sigma Epsilon	ΠΣΕ	1952	Marketing and sales management	National	Fraternity, coed	Active
Sigma Iota Epsilon	ΣΙΕ	1927	Management honorary and professional society	International	Fraternity, coed	Active