page_title: Collegiate secret societies in North America
section_title: University of California, Berkeley
hierarchical_section_title: Collegiate secret societies in North America / Individual institutions / University of California, Berkeley
caption_attribution_description: English: Thorsen House
context_page_description: There are many collegiate secret societies in North America. They vary greatly in their levels of secrecy and independence from their universities. As the term is used in this article, a secret society is a collegiate society where significant effort is made to keep affairs, membership rolls, signs of recognition, initiation, or other aspects secret from the public.
  Some collegiate secret societies are referred to as 'class societies', which restrict membership to one class year. Most class societies are restricted to the senior class, and are therefore also called senior societies on many campuses.
context_section_description: The University of California, Berkeley is home to a small handful of secret societies. Skull & Keys, founded in 1892 by Frank Norris, is the earliest secret society at Berkeley and is composed of a select few members from certain fraternity chapters on campus.
  The second oldest is the Sigma Phi Society of the Thorsen House (popularly shortened to Thorsen), founded in 1912, which acts independent to all of Berkeley's fraternal traditions and regulations and has resided in the famous Thorsen House since 1942.
  The campus is also home to the Order of the Golden Bear, established in 1900, which discourages the term "secret society" despite operating with a secret membership. The order is composed of undergraduate and graduate students, alumni, faculty, and administrators with a commitment to the betterment of the university, although its significance and recognition is considerably smaller presently than it was in its earliest years.
caption: The residence of the Sigma Phi Society of the Thorsen House in Berkeley, California.
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