Green Greeks

Fraternities and sororities at SUNY Oswego pledge to earn their letters as well as their colors. Among the colors crossing campus, a handful of the college’s Greek organizations celebrate green as one of their key colors.

The oldest of Oswego’s Green Greeks is Arethusa Eta, the local Oswego chapter of Sigma Gamma Phi sorority which was founded at Oswego in 1925 and celebrates its 95th anniversary in 2020. The sorority ceased to be active at Oswego in 1980.

The name, Arethusa, comes from a Greek legend about a nymph who is turned into an underground stream and emerged as a fresh water foundation. Its colors are: navy blue, representing strong will and trust; kelly green, signifying the forest and the sea; and white, indicating the clear, pure water of the fountain.

The second oldest is Sigma Gamma, which became a local Oswego fraternity in 1947. Gamma’s colors are green, gold and white. According to the fraternity, green stands for youth and hope; gold for strength and endurance; and white for faith and purity.

Two sororities that started on campus in the 1980s have green in their palettes—local sorority Omicron Xi and national sorority Alpha Epsilon Phi.

Omicron sisters proudly wear the colors of sea green, white and medium blue. These colors were chosen to reflect what the sorority stands for: harmony and strength in eternal sisterhood.

The colors worn by AEPhi sisters are kelly green and white — colors chosen by the founders at Barnard College more than a century ago to represent growth and fellowship, respectively. The colors mirror the sorority flower, the lily of the valley, selected for its simple beauty.

The brothers of national fraternity Delta Sigma Phi sport nile green and carnation white. The fraternity’s flower is the white carnation, chosen as the fraternity’s official flower because it contains the organization’s colors and is sturdy, able to grow in almost any climate.

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