User:Puppysnot/List of Greek Organizations at the University of Virginia

The University of Virginia has a large number of active Greek organizations on grounds. Roughly 30% of the student body belongs to a social fraternity or sorority, with additional students involved in professional, service, and honor fraternities. The organizations are fixtures of social life at the University and have played a significant role in its history. Many of the university's fraternities and sororities are residential, meaning they own or rent a house for their members to use; many of these houses are located on Rugby Road and the surrounding streets, just north of the university.

The University of Virginia was the birthplace of two large national fraternities, Kappa Sigma and Pi Kappa Alpha. Greek life on grounds is recognized as particularly important to the history of the university, and three social fraternities hold reserved rooms on the Lawn: Kappa Sigma in Room 46 East Lawn, Trigon Engineering Society in Room 17 West Lawn, and Pi Kappa Alpha in Room 47 West Range. Additionally, Room 7 West Lawn is reserved for the Jefferson Literary and Debating Society, a Greek-lettered debating organization.

History
Greek life at UVa began relatively soon after the school's establishment in 1819. Social life at the university was originally fixed around debating societies, in which much of the student body was involved; in the 1850s the first fraternities began to appear and assumed a significant role in the student body's social landscape. In the following decades, the university became the birthplace of two national fraternities and saw many more fraternity chapters chartered. The twentieth century saw the system expand even more to include professional fraternities, social sororities, local fraternities, and black fraternities and sororities. Moving into the 2000s, several new social Greek organizations were founded, and multicultural organizations began to rise to prominence.

Social fraternities
The University of Virginia has a large number of social fraternities. This list includes active all-male fraternities and coeducational fraternities that identify themselves primarily as social organizations, as opposed to professional, service, or honor organizations. Several of these fraternities were originally founded much earlier in the university's history, but went inactive and were reestablished later on. In these cases, the establishment date reflects the date that the fraternity's original charter was granted.

Social sororities
In addition to social fraternities, the University of Virginia has a large number of social sororities. This list includes active all-female sororities that identify themselves primarily as social organizations, as opposed to professional, service, or honor organizations. All-female Greek organizations that refer to themselves as "women's fraternities" are included in this list as well.

Service fraternities, professional fraternities and honor societies
The University of Virginia also has chapters of numerous Greek organizations whose primary focus is not social, although some offer social events in addition to service or academic events. While membership in professional fraternities is generally open to any student studying that profession, membership requirements for honor societies are often more demanding and require specific academic or extracurricular achievements.