Phi Gamma Delta
Phi Gamma Delta (ΦΓΔ), commonly known as Fiji, is a social fraternity with 139 active chapters and 13 colonies across the United States and Canada.[2] It was founded at Jefferson College, Pennsylvania, in 1848. Along with Phi Kappa Psi, Phi Gamma Delta forms a half of the Jefferson Duo.[3] Since its founding, the fraternity has initiated more than 211,000 brothers. The nickname FIJI is used commonly by the fraternity due to Phi Gamma Delta bylaws limiting the use of the Greek letters.
Phi Gamma Delta
May 1, 1848
Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania
Social
Active
International
Φιλότης Γλυκυτάτη Δυναστεία
(Friendship, the sweetest influence.)[1]
Royal purple and White
211,000+ lifetime
Fiji, Phi Gam
1201 Red Mile Rd
P.O. Box 4599
Lexington, Kentucky 40504
United States
Beliefs
Phi Gamma Delta has chosen not to use the term alumni for members who have graduated; post-collegiate members are referred to as Graduate Brothers, to imply that membership extends past the undergraduate experience. Similarly, one of the mottoes used by the organization is, "Not for College Days Alone".[11]
Phi Gamma Delta's mission statement lists five core values for its members: friendship, knowledge, service, morality, and excellence.[12][13] In addition, members are encouraged to live by three priorities in this respective order: scholarship, fraternity, and self. This ordering is because members attend university with the foremost goal of receiving an education, and that Phi Gamma Delta is a fraternity that promotes scholastic achievement amongst its members.[14]
Practices and customs
Use of Greek letters and etymology of "Fiji"
Phi Gamma Delta limits the written display of its Greek letters.[15] In accordance with the fraternity's international bylaws, Fiji chapters and members only inscribe their letters in the following seven locations:[16][17]
Local chapter or member misconduct
Indiana
A federal lawsuit filed by a Butler University student in 2019 describes being raped by a Wabash College Phi Gamma Delta member while she was black-out drunk during a Phi Gamma Delta party. She told her attacker to stop and attempted to escape while blacking out repeatedly. Other Phi Gamma Delta fraternity members tried to prevent the woman's friends from finding her as she was being raped, according to the lawsuit. She says that Crawfordsville, Indiana police told her that Wabash College has no formal code of conduct and that the student who assaulted her would face few consequences, so encouraged her not to pursue the complaint.[28]
Iowa
On August 30, 2021, an online petition alleged a sexual assault at the University of Iowa Phi Gamma Delta chapter, said to have occurred the year prior. The allegation appeared a few days after a reported assault at the Nebraska chapter, where students protested in front of the Phi Gamma Delta house.[29]
Nebraska
In September 2012, University of Nebraska at Lincoln (UNL) campus police fielded a report of a rape at the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity house.[30]
On January 21, 2017, Phi Gamma Delta fraternity members at UNL were claimed to have screamed pro-rape slurs at participants of the 2017 Women's March. Chants of "no means yes, yes means anal" were allegedly aimed at thousands of women, children, and men walking past the fraternity house on the University of Nebraska campus. Fraternity members were accused on social media of waving Donald Trump signs, screaming "grab them by the pussy," and then announcing which marchers they would and would not want to "grab by the pussy".[31] Multiple protesters have said that they heard the fraternity members chanting, which a spokesperson for the fraternity has denied.[32][33] One week later, a protest was held outside the fraternity's chapter house. The protest was attended by about 50 people, including an antifa group which flung tampons dipped in red paint at the building.[34] The fraternity was suspended from UNL from March 2017 to May 2020 because of "a pattern of sexually harassing conduct" and other patterns of misconduct.[35]
The UNL chapter was accused of sexual misconduct in October 2019, while it was still suspended because of the events of 2017.[35]
A sexual assault was reported to University of Nebraska police on August 24, 2021, as having been committed by a Phi Gamma Delta member. Hundreds of protesters converged on the fraternity house that night, calling for an end to rape on campus and for the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity to be shut down. Fraternity members stayed inside the house and shared a video via the internet of them laughing at the protestors out the window.[36] The next day, chancellor Ronnie Green announced that the university would be closing the fraternity house and suspending the chapter while the allegation of sexual assault was investigated.[37]
Campus protests against Phi Gamma Delta continued through the next week. State senator Megan Hunt spoke at one, confirming that, although she did not attend UNL, she was aware of the "open secret" of frequent sexual assault at Phi Gamma Delta and certain other UNL fraternities. During the week of protests, university police received an influx of reports of rape; many were previously unreported events from years ago.[38]
In October 2021, the UNL chapter of Phi Gamma Delta was suspended until 2026. The suspension was because of alcohol use, and not officially connected to the recent protests or ongoing sexual assault investigation.[39]
Tennessee
A member at the University of Tennessee was accused of drugging and raping two women during a party in 2019. The accused apologized to one of the women in a text message, which was later used as evidence of his guilt. The fraternity house was sanctioned.[40]
Founding of Kappa Alpha Theta
Fijis at the Lambda chapter at Indiana Asbury University (now known as DePauw University) played an important role in the founding of Kappa Alpha Theta women's fraternity. Bettie Locke, the sister of George W. Locke (DePauw, 1871), was one of the first women enrolled at DePauw.[66] Bettie had many Fiji friends and one of them asked her to wear his badge. She contended that she would do so only if she knew the secrets behind the letters. The fraternity, after debate, declined to initiate her. So, upon suggestion of her father, John Wesley Locke, a Beta Theta Pi, she formed Kappa Alpha Theta with a few other women enrolled at DePauw at the time. Kappa Alpha Theta was founded on January 27, 1870. Phi Gamma Delta later presented Bettie Locke with an engraved silver cake basket as a token of friendship.[67]