About
The Iota Chi Chapter of Phi Gamma Delta arrived at UC Irvine in 1979 and was chartered in May of 1982, making us 29 years old and the longest standing fraternity on the UC Irvine campus. Since our foundation, Iota Chi has become an integral part of the UC Irvine Greek Community and has strong ties to the campus as a whole. Our graduates have gone into law, politics, medicine, engineering, sales, and many other fields; our chapter serves not only as a social meeting place but also as an environment to network with graduate brothers far into the future. At Iota Chi we pride our selves on the quality, diversity and longevity of our brotherhood above all else. Also in Southern California, there are thousands of FIJI graduates from all over that offer their support to our undergraduate chapter at UCI.
Nationally, the Fraternity of Phi Gamma Delta was founded at Old Jefferson College on May 1st, 1848 by six friends united in brotherhood. FIJI quickly spread to other campuses and began to flourish. Throughout the Civil War, the fraternity continued to gain members and even new chapters in the Northern states. After the end of the war, FIJI’s expansion became more rapid and by the turn of the century, there were 49 chapters and over 7,000 members. Through its size and reach, the fraternity began to set standards and work with individual chapters to control expansion and set forth a guideline for membership and ritual. World War I had a drastic effect on all fraternities, including FIJI, as thousands of men left for the war and many never returned. 128 Phi Gams made the ultimate sacrifice in World War I (over another 500 gave up their lives during World War II while more than thousands of FIJIs served the country). In 1922, Brother Calvin Coolidge became the 30th president of the United States, solidifying the FIJI name and bolstering pride in the fraternity and its accomplishments.
Since the 1920s, FIJI has grown to over 140,000 members from over 140 active chapters across the nation’s leading Universities and is the 13th oldest Greek letter fraternity. Our international headquarters is now located in Lexington, Kentucky and through it’s field secretaries and other positions maintains close ties to all the chapters around the nation uniting them in annual events and bi-annual meetings. To this present day, there have been 162,000+ initiated brothers since the 1848 founding date and currently over 6,500 brothers are active undergraduates across 107 chapters and 7 Delta colonies at nearly all major colleges in the U.S. and Canada.
Brotherhood in Phi Gamma Delta lasts a life time and truly is “not for college days alone”.
