"I don't think we give a damn," says Robert S. Price, director of Alpha Delta Phi's financial arm, adding student interest will be key to establishing a successful chapter. "My reaction is, 'let's see.'"

"The final clubs aren't official either, but they do very well," says Schkolnick. And Alisa-Joy Land '91, who is trying to start a Harvard sorority, says her group is "not at all trying to go against school policy," although she says the University is not likely to recognize her group.

The situation is not that unusual, say those involved with Zeta Psi and A.D. Phi. Walton says his group has several chapters that are not affiliated and points to Princeton. "It's one of our top chapters," says Walton, adding that last year the branch won one of the fraternity's three most outstanding chapter awards.

The Princeton chapter, like Harvard's, is not affiliated with the university and has no meeting house or living space. Whitney S. Terrell, president of the Princeton Zeta Psi, says the chapter is one of five or six "underground" fraternities at the school. He says his fraternity was begun five years ago and has around 40 members.

Like Harvard's chapter, members of the Princeton group hold weekly meetings, participate in events with other chapters and do community service. Terrell says the chapter has a blood drive every semester.

"It has worked out relatively well," says Terrell, adding that the chapter has had no problems with the lack of formal ties. He says that since most upperclass males eat at eating clubs, freshmen and upperclassmen have little chance to get to know each other. "The fraternity serves in an effective way to bridge that gap," Terrell says.

Officials at A.D. Phi also say they foresee no problems with the lack of recognition. They say the setup at Connecticut's Trinity College is much the same and has worked well there. If the chapter is effective, Price says his organization might be willing to fund space for meetings, a small library and possibly some computer terminals.

Three years ago, the national headquarters of Zeta Psi--a small fraternity with chapters at Tufts and MIT--decided to reestablish a Harvard chapter and recruited students who are now seniors. But efforts were not kept up, and it wasn't until the group faced extinction that the national organization returned to Harvard to seek new pledges.

Already, Zeta Psi has attracted about 20 freshman pledges, who will be intitiated this spring, says Walton.

Members of five coed chapters of Alpha Delta Phi, a literary fraternity that is one of the oldest in the country, are also now trying to interest Harvard undergraduates in starting a chapter at Harvard. The effort is being spearheaded by several students at Brown University who say they would like to have another strong chapter close by. A Harvard chapter would accept both male and female members and would follow the fraternity's literary tradition, says Brown student Pamela Coukos.

So far, the fraternity has attracted only one Harvard undergraduate and a transfer student from Brown who pledged the fraternity there but has not been initiated, Coukos says. The group hopes to attract further interest at its first meeting next week.

Land says she and her roommate Laurie C. Throne '91 hope to get a sorority started sometime next year. There are currently no sororities at Harvard, although a Black group at MIT has recruited Harvard students for several years.

The two freshmen are currently looking for a national sorority that would back the effort.

"It's partially a response to the issue of the final clubs and the suing," says Land. She says the final clubs exist for men, but women's groups are "an untapped resource."

Land acknowledges current Radcliffe women's groups but says they are not as community-oriented as the sorority would be. She says the group would not be elitist, like the clubs, but a place for women to share their concerns.