MU Greek Life

When the Missouri Alpha Chapter of Phi Kappa Psi was founded at the University of Missouri–Columbia, it became the first chapter of a fraternity founded at any public university west of the Mississippi River. When the Zeta Phi Society was founded on November 7, 1870, one might say that the Greek Life system at MU was born, as there was now two Greek-letter groups on campus. Phi Delta Theta installed its Missouri Alpha Chapter just two weeks after the founding of Zeta Phi, which brought the total to three active groups. The first women's group to form was the Theta Chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma, which installed on April 2, 1875. Missouri Alpha of Phi Kappa Psi went on to fold the next year in 1876 after initiating 72 men. As a result, Zeta Phi, which later became a chapter of Beta Theta Pi, holds the title of oldest fraternity in continuous existence at the University.
1996
National expansion representatives from Delta Sigma Phi began recruiting on campus in January in an effort to recolonize the chapter at MU, which lost its charter in 1994. Tau Kappa Epsilon leased the Delta Sigma Phi house while that fraternity was dissolved.
1997
Lambda Chi Alpha's charter was suspended, and the fraternity moved from its house at 503 Kentucky Ave. Tau Kappa Epsilon turned over its charter to its headquarters following several semesters of struggling recruitment. Predominantly Jewish sorority Alpha Epsilon Phi closed its doors due to declining membership at the end of spring semester and Alpha Kappa Lambda purchased the house. The new Alpha Tau Omega house was completed at 909 Richmond Ave., and it was touted as the first substance-free house at MU. The $2.5 million, 22,000 sq ft, house included a state-of-the-art computer room, an underground parking garage, and six-person suites complete with common areas. In October, a freshman Beta Theta Pi pledge was found drunk, [...], and injured outside Mark Twain Hall after a pledge event. This issue was the breaking point in a series of alcohol related problems with Greek houses that forced campus officials and the Greek community to begin looking into a complete ban of alcohol from the Greek houses on campus. The policy to be implemented would become commonly known as "Dry2K". Also in October, Alpha Tau Omega members were discovered to have dumped approximately three truckloads of garbage around the house of UM President Manuel Pacheco. The garbage consisted mostly of straw, plastic cups, broken beer bottles, smashed pumpkins ,and a broken toilet bowl. The trash was found to be from the fraternity's "Cornjigger" party.
1998
Sigma Tau Gamma closed its chapter due to membership difficulties. At the time, the fraternity was located on Providence Rd. between the Alpha Phi and Pi Kappa Alpha houses. The Beta Epsilon chapter of Pi Kappa Phi closed on August 22 following several semesters of warnings from its national headquarters regarding low recruitment numbers. Ownership of the Pi Kappa Phi house was immediately turned over to Boone County National Bank and Zeta Beta Tau Fraternity. The cause of the fire was ruled as arson, and the last person in the house before the fire committed [...]. Since reaching a low point as the smallest sorority on campus in 1997, Alpha Phi found itself in the middle of a membership crisis. Alpha Phi International forced current members into immediate alumnae status in 1998 to prepare to recolonize the chapter with new members beginning in September. The result was a divided Greek community. Many Greeks wore buttons that said "MU Greeks Stand Together: I Support the new Alpha Phi".
1999
On May 8, MU freshman Dominic Passantino died in a fire at the Sigma Chi house at 500 S. College Avenue. Passantino had been sleeping on the top bunk of a wooden loft that was enclosed in sheetrock. A lit candle caught the bunk on fire and quickly spread through the house before firefighters could contain the flames. On July 6, fire gutted the vacant former Pi Kappa Phi house at 915 Richmond Ave. The house had been sitting vacant for the past year since Pi Kappa Phi has disbanded due to financial troubles. In 1999, both Alpha Tau Omega and Kappa Alpha Psi were found guilty of hazing violations. Kappa Alpha Psi denied the allegations and were suspended from campus for four years. Alpha Tau Omega admitted to the violations, and the chapter was banned from many campus activities. In response, the fraternity's headquarters placed a full-page advertisement in The Maneater that stated that the fraternity condemns hazing and is taking actions to assure ATO becomes a "strong community citizen."
2000
The Dry 2000, or "Dry2K," policy went into effect beginning in the fall semester. The new policy banned alcohol in Greek housing, and also at off-campus social events unless a licensed third-party vendor is contracted to handle the alcohol.
2001
Several freshman lead an initiative to bring Sigma Tau Gamma back to the MU campus; however, the IFC's President's Council unanimously rejected the group's request for IFC recognition of the fraternity twice in 2001. The IFC cited that the fraternity needed to show more professionalism and seriousness. In the fall, Phi Mu began recruiting in its efforts to establish its new chapter at MU. It had been selected the past May to become the 14 sorority on campus, beating out other finalists Delta Zeta and Alpha Omicron Pi. Phi Mu would reconstruct a house at the site of the former Lambda Chi Alpha house at 503 Kentucky Ave. Phi Mu had previously been active at MU from 1913 until World War II. Phi Mu's original chapter resided at the same location nearly 60 years earlier. In October, the colony of Delta Sigma Phi regained their charter to once again become an official chapter.
2002
In fall 2002, Lambda Chi Alpha began recolonization on the MU campus. In October, Greek Life and the interim vice chancellor for Student Affairs at MU imposed a four-year suspension on Sigma Chi following severe hazing violations. Sigma Chi's international headquarters went on to revoke the chapter's charter in response to the violations.
2003
In April, the new Lambda Chi Alpha colony signed a three-year lease with an optional fourth year on the Sigma Chi house at 500 S. College. Sigma Tau Gamma was denied recognition for a third time by IFC before finally gaining approval following its fourth request for recognition. In the fall, Pi Kappa Phi began the process of recolonizing on the MU campus, following their 1998 departure. Sigma Kappa was warned by its headquarters that it could face losing its charter if recruitment numbers were not significantly boosted in the fall.
2004
On January 28, Sigma Kappa voted to cease operations and assume dormant status, because the charter was still falling significantly short of minimum numbers for recruitment. Sigma Kappa members remained active in Greek life through May, at which time they assumed alumnae status. Sigma Tau Gamma was officially re-chartered in the fall. On November 13, Pi Kappa Phi also regained its charter from its national organization.
2005
Tau Kappa Epsilon began recolonization efforts at MU following its 1997 departure from campus.
2006
In February, Sigma Chi returned to the MU campus after losing chapter status in 2002 due to hazing violations. Spring 2006 also brought the loss of Phi Gamma Delta's charter because of hazing violations and financial difficulty. Pi Kappa Phi began leasing the vacant Sigma Kappa house. In October, Delta Upsilon was found responsible for condoning and sanctioning members' hazing activities after Delta Upsilon pledge Richie Riddle was hospitalized when he was found in a pool of blood outside the Newman Center, near the Delta Upsilon house. In November, Alpha Tau Omega once again found itself under intense scrutiny when the MU chapter caused more than $10,000 worth of damage to a Lake of the Ozarks resort during the weekend of Nov. 12-13. ATO's national chapter chose to penalize the individual members involved rather than the chapter as a whole, and the resort agreed not to press charges as long as the fraternity compensated for the damages within one week of the offense. The MU Greek Life office, however, imposed nine sanctions on Alpha Tau Omega as a result of their actions at the resort.
2007
Alpha Tau Omega was banned from participation in Greek Week activities as part of their sanctions from their incident at the lake resort in 2006, and and Delta Upsilon was also banned from Greek Week as part of probation that would last until May 2008. Sigma Chi regained their house at 500 S. College Avenue in summer 2007, which had previously been leased to Lambda Chi Alpha since 2003. Lambda Chi Alpha in turn purchased the house formerly belonging to Delta Chi on Stewart Road. Low membership forced Delta Chi to sell their house at 111 E. Stewart Road. Despite low membership, Delta Chi planned to remain active on campus. Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority plans to colonize on the campus in fall 2008.

Councils

• Interfraternity Council (IFC) - Bryan VanGronigen, President
• Multicultural Greek Council (MGC) - Jamie Kanki, President
• National Pan-Hellenic Council, Inc. (NPHC) - Chris Addae, President
• Panhellenic Association (PHA) - Diamond Scott, President

Homecoming

2007 Overall Results

• 1st: Alpha Delta Pi, Pi Kappa Alpha
• 2nd: Kappa Delta, Alpha Gamma Sigma, Tau Kappa Epsilon
• 3rd: Pi Beta Phi, Phi Kappa Theta

Greek Week

2007 Overall Results

• 1st: Alpha Delta Pi, Beta Theta Pi
• 2nd: Kappa Alpha Theta, Phi Kappa Theta, Beta Sigma Psi
• 3rd: Kappa Kappa Gamma, Pi Kappa Alpha, Sigma Tau Gamma

2006 Overall Results

• 1st: Kappa Kappa Gamma, Phi Kappa Theta, Alpha Epsilon Pi
• 2nd: Kappa Alpha Theta, Pi Kappa Alpha, Delta Tau Delta
• 3rd: Delta Delta Delta, Zeta Phi Beta, Beta Theta Pi, Delta Chi

Chapters

External links

• MU Greek Life website