A Look at How Some Houses Went Co-Ed

Although no one knows precisely how long members of the opposite sex have secretly resided at fraternity or sorority houses, some Greek-letter societies formally went co-ed back in the 1960s, says the organizer of a network of co-ed fraternities.

“The first co-ed fraternity I know of was Pi Alpha Tau, founded in 1962 at the University of Chicago. It was called a ‘fratority’ and founded by Gaylord Cox, who had been a member of Theta Zsi,” says Jeff Heofand, a senior at Bradley University in Peoria, Ill., who created Pi Delta Chi, a co-ed fraternity at Bradley, in 1987. Heofand is organizing an association for such groups.

“From my research, I’m guessing there are about 400 local co-ed college fraternities in the United States. Most of them are not really affiliated with anyone,” he says.

Today, some fraternities affiliated with national organizations covertly have women members, adds Heofand. “I haven’t researched it in the Western United States, but in the East it’s very popular for (allegedly all-male) fraternities to have women members. They just don’t tell their national organizations about it,” he says, referring to the fact that most national constitutions and bylaws specifically forbid women members.

But a few integrated local chapters do, in fact, tell their national organizations that they have female members and exceptions are sometimes made, Heofand says.

In addition, some national fraternities, such as Psi Upsilon, have changed their constitutions to accept women members.

Says Jonathan J. Brant, executive director of the National Interfraternity Conference: “Last year we surveyed our member fraternities. There are 59 of them. Five of them responded that their constitutions were not gender-specific, and that their membership was open to (any) students in good standing. Three of those five indicated that they have one or more women on their official membership roles.”