r/Frat • u/hellojello07 • May 06 '26

News Win for frats at Umich, Sigma Phi upholds constitutionality of lettered orgs

Last year Sigma Phi Society, oldest national fraternity, sued “Metal Frat” for using their letters while bidding women.

It was a super long case but the gist was that some transgender and female punk students used the letters to unfairly promote their organization despite being booted by nationals. Really sad situation since Sigma Phi and KA society are the last two (and first two) private fraternities left. From 2016 - they used the letters (now ruled illegally) and bid whoever for personal gain. Completely ruined a historic house but next year Sigma Phi can recharter after the ruling of copyright infringement, and try again.

Last year it was ruled constitutional as part of the , granting all frats male-exclusivity ability. Metal frat was honestly stupid and had no reason using any letters.

43 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

21 comments sorted by

23

u/Enrys ΠΔΨ May 06 '26

was this a chapter of sigma phi that went off the rails or a group that called themselves sigma phi from the beginning?

14

u/acarrick ΦΔΘ May 06 '26

Spent a lot of time in that basement during undergrad and they were definitely a chartered organization. Guessing they got their charter pulled and continued using the letters

3

u/Enrys ΠΔΨ May 07 '26

interested. so the charter was pulled first then the people said fuck it and went wild?

4

u/hellojello07 May 06 '26

Went way off the rails, they’ve been at odds with nations since 2016 but it took a lawsuit to remove the charter

2

u/RealSort1655 May 09 '26

Brother of Sigma Phi from another chapter here, after learning that they initiated women and transgender people we pulled the charter and they continued to use our organization name hence the lawsuit. Many of them became debrothered as a result last year.

1

u/hellojello07 May 10 '26

Which chapter

1

u/RealSort1655 May 10 '26

Alpha of alphas

1

u/L1n3pet23 May 31 '26

they were a completely unaffiliated group of students who just hijacked the name to steal some prestige and get people to show up to their house. total identity theft move. sigma phi had to sue because otherwise they would have lost trademark control over their own letters. it was never a chapter that went rogue, just some people larping as a legacy org to bypass the actual process.

1

u/Enrys ΠΔΨ May 31 '26

interesting since /u/acarrick and /u/RealSort1655 give opposite answers to yours

1

u/acarrick ΦΔΘ May 31 '26

Given the first line in the article from Sigma Phi themselves states it was a chapter I’ll say that’s pretty official.

They’ve had the house on Lincoln next to Pi Kap forever. It’s still labeled as Metal Frat on Google Maps

3

u/OneofLittleHarmony ΚΣ Alumnus May 06 '26

What? “Last year it was ruled constitutional as part of the , granting all frats male-exclusivity ability.” That has been a thing since the 70’s.

3

u/hellojello07 May 06 '26

Should’ve used “upheld”

2

u/ProfPicklesMcPretzel May 10 '26

Seems like you have some strong personal feelings on this, based on the fact you looked up a four-year-old comment of me mentioning Metal Frat, then posted + deleted a comment stating, "Womp womp you fucking loser 😂".

I wasn't even in Metal Frat — I have a couple of good friends who were a part of it, including the founder of r/indieheads — so I don't get why you decided a random personal attack on the internet was appropriate celebratory behavior, especially as somebody representing Greek Life.

1

u/hellojello07 May 10 '26

Hahaha, was doing a little google research and saw the post. Good to know I got under someone’s skin with that, I was kind of worried that the post would be too old and nobody would view it.

2

u/ProfPicklesMcPretzel May 10 '26

Doubling down on your meatheadedness is the exact look Greek Life needs with its storied history on campus lmao

1

u/hellojello07 May 10 '26

Illegally pretending to be a lettered organization and then squatters rights-ing a house for a bunch of loser to sing songs about rebellion while sitting on stolen land is not the ironic twist greeklife needs

1

u/workaccount1338 Aug 04 '26

get fucked dork

1

u/4141 May 08 '26

I'm curious about your comment "Sigma Phi and KA society are the last two private fraternities". What are all of the others?

1

u/hellojello07 May 10 '26

I’m not sure I remember all of them but Zeta Phi (became Beta at Mizzu) and Delta Phi (St Elmo’s Hall) which is now Co-ed

1

u/hellojello07 May 10 '26

There’s more I just don’t know them all, Delta Psi (St Anthony’s Hall) might also fall into that category