User:Jax MN/sandbox/PiBeta PhiChapters

Draft of revised chapter table for Pi Beta Phi chapters
Helpful links:
 * Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Fraternities and Sororities/Redlinked institutions
 * Pi Phi listing at Baird's
 * List_of_Pi_Beta_Phi_chapters

A list of collegiate chapters of the Pi Beta Phi sorority.

Chapter types
Originally, Pi Beta Phi recognized three types of chapters: College, Associate and Alumnae. "College" chapters were equivalent to today's Active, collegiate chapters. "Associate" was defined, not as a "colony" as some organizations use the term today, but as a community-based chapter where there was no applicable school present, but where "members could be obtained possessing the same educational attainments as those possessed by members of the collegiate chapters." By 1884 no further Associate chapters were created, and the fraternity has indicated none will be created in the future. "Alumnae" chapters had similar privileges as College chapters, except that they did not initiate new members. Alumnae chapters soon evolved into the modern alumnae clubs found today.

Discontinuation of Associate chapters (~Community chapters) and the scheme to rename chapters on the state basis occurred during the period 1884-1888.

Naming convention
For the first 21 years, chapters were granted names from the same series, without a "state" modifier. Some of these names were reused, as is indicated by a (1) or (2) next to a chapter name. By 1888, a critical juncture was reached where any currently-active chapters were renamed with a state modifier, a practice that continues today. Several Associate (~Community) chapters from the earlier, I.C. Sorosis period were granted state-series names even if they were dormant; but most were at small schools that had been closed for a decade or more. For clarity, these are listed in a separate section at the end of this list. By 1888 too, the Fraternity's had fully shifted away from creating chapters at women's finishing schools, 2-yr schools and small seminaries or simply non-academic "community chapters", to focus on 4-year schools: those bona fide colleges and universities that all NPC organizations serve today.

Active chapters noted in bold, inactive chapters and dormant schools noted in italics.

I.C. Sorosis chapters from prior to the name change
The name of the Fraternity began as I.C. Sorosis, while "Pi Beta Phi" was indicated on its crest. Usage of these was reversed so that the fraternity would now be known as Pi Beta Phi after the 1888 Ottumwa Convention, apparently to better align with the Greek Letter model popular with other men's and women's fraternities. The naming structure for chapters was also changed at the 1888 Ottumwa Convention, adopting a "state series" model. These are the chapters formed under an I.C. Sorosis charter which went dormant prior to the state naming system was adopted. Many were "Community chapters" not linked to a specific school.