The freshman says national affiliation would provide "a certain degree of structure, plus a nationally recognized name." Land says she is in contact with several sororities, including Kappa Alpha Theta and the "TriDelts."

Land's sorority might be the first in Harvard history, but many fraternities used to have chapters here. These fraternities became obsolete after the creation of the house system, which was designed to assume the social functions of the fraternities. The Faculty voted in the early part of the century ban fraternities, many of which became final or waiting clubs, says Epps.

The first Harvard chapter of the Alpha Delta Phi--which would become the A.D. Club--was founded in 1837 as a literary society by members of Harvardiana, a defunct publication, says Price.

"They had a room in Holyoke St. and a reading room," Price says, adding that the chapter now being organized would be much the same. In 1865, the chapter split with the fraternity and became the A.D. Club.

Later the fraternity established a second chapter, which was to become the Fly Club. Efforts are not being made by Alpha Delta Phi to contact either of the two clubs, according to W. Douglas Bond, who is acting as an alumni adviser to the Brown group.

Zeta Psi also had a chapter at Harvard from the 1850s until the 1880s, Walton says. Zeta Psi attempted a comeback in 1985, but after successfully pledging a group of undergraduates, the organization failed to add to its ranks. This time, the group has not asked for sanction from the administration because of hostility three years ago, says Walton.

And Coukos says her group has not received any response to letters it sent to President Bok, Epps and Dingman.

Brown member Andrew E. Wetzler says the group sent out the letter because Epps was "uncommunicative." He says A.D. Phi hopes to be on friendly terms with Harvard administration. And Coukos says the five coed chapters will have officials at their universities write recommendation letters for the fraternity.

Alpha Delta Phi is also trying to establish a chapter at Yale and is working out the purchase of a house for the fraternity there, Price says. The fraternity would be all-male. In 1935 Yale's original chapter resigned from the fraternity because, Price says, "they felt it was inimical to the college system."

Yale's colleges are the equivalent of Harvard's houses, and, "In those days a college was designed to be all that a fraternity is," Price says. He says the fraternity was interested in reestablishing the chapter because the college system "no longer provides the intimacy it was supposed to." Price and members of A.D. Phi's coed chapters say Harvard has the same problems and might equally benefit from an A.D. Phi chapter.

But the fraternity's organizing efforts may have political ramifications that go beyond Harvard. The fraternity's efforts to reopen a chapter at Yale is a project run by the group's headquarters. The Harvard chapter is being organized by students, not by the head office, says Alpha Delta Phi Executive Director William E. Millard.

And because most A.D. Phi chapters are opposed to coed chapters, A.D. Phi International President James T. McCollum says attempts to approve a Harvard chapter could cause a break in the fraternity.

By becoming a coed chapter of the fraternity, some of the major chapters of the national fraternity say they may walk out. An agreement on the books currently prohibits the addition of coed chapters, and calls for the reversion of all coed chapters to all-male status by 1990, McCollum says.

Organizers of the Harvard chapter say they seek to use a coed fraternity here as a bargaining chip to wrest a compromise from an adamant all-male faction, most in the West. McCollum says Harvard may experience difficulty in winning recognition from the national organization.

"We're hoping that the International will want Harvard enough to let it in coed," says Mark R. Chassy, Columbia's liaison with the Harvard chapter.