Rho Psi
Encyclopedia
The Rho Psi Society is an honorary Greek letter fraternity
Fraternities and sororities
Fraternities and sororities are fraternal social organizations for undergraduate students. In Latin, the term refers mainly to such organizations at colleges and universities in the United States, although it is also applied to analogous European groups also known as corporations...

. Although founded as a student society, it is no longer active at the collegiate level. The objectives of the Society are to promote and perpetuate friendship among members; to develop congeniality and brotherhood in the fraternal life; and to cultivate the spirit of cooperation and self-sacrifice.

History

Rho Psi was founded in 1916 at Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

 in Ithaca, New York
Ithaca, New York
The city of Ithaca, is a city in upstate New York and the county seat of Tompkins County, as well as the largest community in the Ithaca-Tompkins County metropolitan area...

 as a general club for male students of Chinese descent
Chinese people
The term Chinese people may refer to any of the following:*People with Han Chinese ethnicity ....

, with the Chinese name Su Yu She (Society for Respecting Friends). The original founders, Chih Ping, L. N. Lau, Y. C. Yang, K. C. Lay, and C. K. Cheng, were all of Chinese origin, and thus excluded from most fraternities of the time. It was the first club with Greek letters for Asian students in what is now the Ivy League
Ivy League
The Ivy League is an athletic conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. The conference name is also commonly used to refer to those eight schools as a group...

.

The Alpha chapter, which maintained a house, existed on the Cornell campus until 1931. Rho Psi became national in 1925 with the establishment of the another chapter in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, and the fraternity gained international status in 1929 with a chapter in Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...

. It appears in four editions of Baird's Manual of American College Fraternities
Baird's Manual of American College Fraternities
Baird's Manual of American College Fraternities is a compendium of fraternities and sororities in the United States and Canada first published in 1879. It covers national and international general , professional, and honor fraternities, including defunct organizations, with an overview of each...

.

At its 1976 convention in State College, Pennsylvania
State College, Pennsylvania
State College is the largest borough in Centre County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It is the principal city of the State College, Pennsylvania Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Centre County. As of the 2010 census, the borough population was 42,034, and roughly double...

, Su Yu She adopted the name Rho Psi Society, and women were admitted to membership. In 2009 Rho Psi was rechartered at the University of Alabama
University of Alabama
The University of Alabama is a public coeducational university located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States....

 as the Sigma chapter.

There are now a large number of collegiate Asian-American clubs.
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