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October 2008
GW Celebrates 150th Anniversary of Greek Life
By Jamie Freedman “We’ve been experiencing incredible growth and anticipate that some 2,000 students—more than 20 percent of our undergraduate population—will be members of fraternities and sororities this fall,” says Dean Harwood, GW’s director of Greek life. Harwood adds that two chapters will be returning to Foggy Bottom this year after a long hiatus—Chi Omega and Delta Tau Delta. “Both were originally established here in 1903, and we’re looking forward to welcoming them back,” he says. GW’s Greek history dates back to 1858, when Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity established the Washington City Rho chapter on campus. The pioneering group is famous for being the sole chapter of the fraternity to survive the Civil War. The University’s first sorority, Pi Beta Phi’s D.C. Alpha chapter, was chartered in April 1889—the first academic year that women were admitted to the University. By the end of the 19th century, GW was home to nine fraternities and sororities. Greek life was a pivotal part of GW’s social scene in the 1920s and 1930s, with black-tie dances held at Washington’s most elegant venues, including the Mayflower and Willard hotels. “If you look through Cherry Tree yearbooks from those decades, a third of the pages were devoted to fraternities and sororities,” notes Harwood. Membership ebbed in the 1960s and 1970s in the wake of the civil rights movement and Vietnam War and regained momentum in the 1980s. “The late 1970s brought multicultural fraternities and sororities to campus,” says Harwood. “Today, we have four African American groups, four Asian groups, and two Latino groups at GW.” Through the years, a number of notable GW students have participated in Greek life. Margaret Truman Daniel, B.A. ’46, the daughter of President Harry S. Truman, was a member of GW’s Pi Beta Phi chapter and routinely took sorority sisters home to the White House for Sunday dinner. J. Edgar Hoover, L.L.B. ’16, the powerful director of the FBI for 48 years, served as president of GW’s Kappa Alpha order and reportedly hired a number of fraternity brothers in his early days at the FBI. Michael B. Enzi, B.B.A. ’66, U.S. senator from Wyoming, was a member of GW’s Sigma Chi chapter, who roomed with fraternity brother Edward W. (Skip) Gnehm Jr., B.A. ’66, M.A. ’68, a three-time U.S. ambassador who now serves as GW’s Kuwait Professor of Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Affairs. To accommodate the increasing Greek presence on campus, the University built Townhouse Row, a full block of townhouses for fraternities and sororities on 23rd Street between F and G streets, in 2003. Five smaller, University-owned townhouses are also home to Greek-letter groups, along with all nine floors of International House on Virginia Avenue. “A large driver of our growth is the fact that we have high-quality chapters at GW and our students are getting a great, balanced experience,” says Harwood. “Some of our chapters received awards this summer for being among the top groups in their organizations in the country.” According to Harwood, fraternity and sorority members at GW raise more than $160,000 annually for charity, perform thousands of hours of community service, and hold leadership positions in myriad student organizations. “Their membership in Greek organizations accentuates their GW experience in a way that connects them to the entire community,” he states. “To me, it’s one of the legacies of GW that’s helped to tie things together for 150 years. Today’s students do a great job of honoring that legacy and setting the stage for future greatness.”
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