Go Greek!
Fraternities & Sororities at Cornell
Cornell University has the second largest greek system in the nation. Fraternities and sororities add a special dimension to life here in Ithaca. They make a large campus smaller, give you a place to call home, and offer a chance to make friends as never before. They instill leadership, encourage scholarship, and promote community service.
As one of the oldest and strongest Greek systems in the country, Cornell's 40 fraternities and 12 sororities comprise over 30% of the entire student body. Joining a Greek organization allows you the unique opportunity to make lifelong friends from all walks of life. Politicians and Hollywood celebrities, world leaders and local activists, captains of the football team and captains of the chess team, all call a fraternity or sorority home.
Did you know?
- Forty-three of 50 of the nation's largest corporations are led by Greeks?
- Three Fourths of Congress is Greek?
- Two-thirds of all Presidential Cabinet members since 1900 have been Greek?
- Of Supreme Court Justices since 1910, 85% have been Greek?
- Since fraternities began in 1825, all but three US Presidents belonged to a fraternity?
- Eighty-five percent of the Fortune 500 chief executives belong to a fraternity?
- Today, 65 fraternities with over 6,000 chapters on more than 800 campuses in the U.S. and Canada, include 400,000 undergraduates and a total living membership of over 4.5 million?
- Similarly, there are 26 sororities with over 2,660 chapters in the U.S. in Canada and a total membership of more than 2.5 million women?
- Well over 7 million dollars and a million man hours are contributed to charities and social service agencies each year by fraternities alone?
Ronald Reagan
US President
Howard D. Schultz
Starbucks, Chairman
Joseph W. Ralston
NATO, Supreme Allied Commander
of forces in Europe
Edward C. Droste
Hooters Restaurants, Co-Founder
Earle H. Harbison, Jr.
Monsanto Chemicals, COO
Frank J. Jirka
American Medical Association,
President
Conrad M. Hilton
Hilton Hotels, Founder
Paul F. Oreffice
Dow Chemical, Former
Chairman/CEO
Robert C. Byrd
US Senator, West Virginia
Elvis Aron Presley
Entertainer
Charles A. Whittaker
US Supreme Court Justice
Gerald P. Carr
NASA Astronaut
Charles Walgreen
Walgreen Drug, President
Terry P. Bradshaw
NFL Star and Broadcaster
George S. Halas
NFL, Founder
William A. Fowler
Nobel Prize, Physics
Willie Nelson
Entertainer
The American college Fraternity is one of the few institutions on our higher educational structure which was invented by us and not borrowed from European models. Not surprisingly, it has been a symbol of American college student independence, pride, and leadership.
Fraternity men represent about 2% of the male population of America. What is happening to that 2%? They are leading this nation! Approximately 80% of the executives of the 500 largest corporations in America are fraternity men. More than three fourths of our U.S. Senators are fraternity men, as are a majority of the men listed in Who's Who in America. Of the sixteen U.S. Presidents who had a chance to join a College Fraternity, thirteen took advantage of the opportunity. So many College Presidents have been fraternity members that the total would run into the thousands.
How and why are fraternities able to produce such a large percentage of our nation's leaders? The easiest way to answer this question is to examine just what happens in a Fraternity.
A college fraternity provides a young man with the opportunity to learn how to work together with people, whether it be for the highest grades, the best homecoming float, a community service project, or merely to keep the house clean. A fraternity provides a unique combination: family, home away from home, social organization, business and organization in which students can develop confidence as they acquire competence. The opportunities for leadership are unlimited and the most important thing is that the principles of leadership are learned through experience.
This experience teaches Fraternity men that success is not automatic, but rather, that knowledge and performance are what count most. A Fraternity man learns how to develop sensitivity regarding the desires, goals, and aspirations of others; how to communicate, how to inspire, how to motivate; the importance of setting an example; how to delegate responsibility; and how to accept failure as well as success and glory. He learns that a true leader must have the courage to stand up for his beliefs, while also being attentive, interested, and responsive to those who may disagree.
Too many students come to college, sign up for classes, study from test to test memorizing material and feeding it back at test time. They may get good grades and graduate, but it is surprising how many college graduates are wandering around looking for jobs because they did not develop the ability to work with people or the basic qualities of leadership while they were in college. The qualities of leadership must be tested and developed by each person and a fraternity provides the opportunity for students for just that.