Sigma Alpha Epsilon () is a North American Greek-letter social college fraternity. It was founded at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on March 9, 1856. Of all existing national social fraternities, Sigma Alpha Epsilon is the only one founded in the Antebellum South. Its national headquarters, the Levere Memorial Temple, was established next to the campus of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, in 1926. The fraternity's mission statement is "To promote the highest standards of friendship, scholarship, and service for our members throughout life."
The fraternity has chapters and emerging chapters in 50 states and provinces as of 2011.
Sigma Alpha Epsilon had eleven deaths linked to drinking, drugs and hazing between 2006 and 2013, more than any other Greek organization in the United States according to data compiled by Bloomberg. During the 2010s, at least 18 Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapters were suspended, closed, or banned. In March 2014, the fraternity announced that it was eliminating the tradition of pledging following these deaths and other hazing incidents.
History
Sigma Alpha Epsilon was founded on March 9, 1856, at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Its founders were Noble Leslie DeVotie, Nathan Elams Cockrell, Samuel Marion Dennis, John Barrett Rudulph, Abner Edwin Patton, Wade Hampton Foster, Thomas Chappell Cook, and John Webb Kerr."Sigma Alpha Epsilon Group Will Observe Anniversary". The Daily Oklahoman. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. 1956-03-04. p. 54. Retrieved 2023-03-12. Their leader was DeVotie, who wrote the ritual, created the grip, and chose the name. Rudulph designed the fraternity badge. Of all existing national social fraternities, Sigma Alpha Epsilon is the only national fraternity founded in the Antebellum South.
Patton was selected as the fraternity's first president.Myhre, Erik L. (2007). "The History of Sigma Alpha Epsilon: Part One: 1856 - 1865". Washington State University (published 1997). Retrieved 2023-03-11.Levere, William Collin (1911). T he History of Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity. Vol. 1. Chicago: R. R. Donnelley & Sons Company. pp. 68–69 – via Google Books. In the fall of 1854, Patton was the only Sigma Alpha Epsilon founder still enrolled at the university and continued to serve as its president. His efforts led to the expansion of the fraternity to the University of Nashville (now Vanderbilt University), Union College, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in January and February 1857. By the end of 1857, the fraternity had grown to seven chapters. Its first national convention met in the summer of 1858 at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, with four of its eight chapters in attendance.
By the time the American Civil War began in 1861, fifteen chapters had been established. The fraternity had fewer than 400 members when the Civil War began. Of those, 370 went to war for the Confederate States and seven for the Union Army."Brothers' Mark Sigma Alpha Epsilon Centennial". The Boston Globe. 1956-03-11. p. 8. Retrieved 2023-03-12 – via Newspapers.com. Seventy-four members of the fraternity lost their lives in the war, including founders Dennis, DeVotie, and Patton.
Fraternal history notes that Noble Leslie DeVotie was the first person to die in the Civil War, though this is in dispute. DeVotie lost his footing while boarding a steamer at Fort Morgan, Alabama, on February 12, 1861, hit his head and drowned. His body washed ashore three days later. He is recognized by the State of Alabama as the first Alabama Soldier to die in the Civil War.Noble Leslie DeVotie - HMDB
After the Civil War, a small chapter at Columbian College, which is now George Washington University in Washington, D.C., was the only chapter to survive.The History of Sigma Alpha Epsilon
When a few of the young veterans returned to the Georgia Military Institute in Marietta, Georgia, and found their college burned to the ground, they decided to enter the University of Georgia in Athens. The chapter there, which was established at the end of 1865, along with the reestablishment of a chapter at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, led to the fraternity's revival. Soon, other chapters came back to life and, in 1867, the first post-war convention was held in Nashville, where a half-dozen revived chapters planned the fraternity's future growth.
In the 1870s and early 1880s, more than a score of new chapters were formed. Older chapters died as fast as new ones were established. By 1886, the fraternity had chartered 49 chapters, but few were active. The first chapter north of the Mason Dixon Line had been established at Pennsylvania College (now Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania), in 1883, and a second was placed at Mount Union College in Alliance, Ohio two years later.
Symbols Sigma Alpha Epsilon's colors are royal purple and old gold. Its symbol is the lion. Its flower is the violet. The fraternity's Roman divinity is Minerva.
Levere Memorial Temple
The fraternity's international headquarters, also known as the Fraternity Service Center, is maintained at the Levere Memorial Temple in Evanston, Illinois. The fraternity approved a plan to construct a national headquarters at its 1920 convention and its design was approved at the 1928 convention.Stewart, Austin and G. W. Lambert. "Levere Memorial Temple, Sigma Alpha Epsilon." Clio: Your Guide to History. March 29, 2018. Accessed March 12, 2023. It was built between mid-1929 and 1930, and was dedicated on December 28, 1930. The building was named for member William Levere who left $25,000 in his will to the fraternity.
The Levere Memorial Temple serves as a war memorial for fraternities members and houses a museum on the first floor with a collection of historical photographs, pictures, and collections from private sources.
The Diomedians At one point, the fraternity had an alumni affiliate called the Diomedians. This organization was founded in 1918 in New York City, and its ritual was first "exemplified" in May 1919 and a National Council with the power to grant charters was established that June. A convention in St. Louis a year and a half later incorporated the Diomedians into the organizational structure of the fraternity and created the "Diomedian degree". By 1923 Diomedian chapters were established in Michigan and Pittsburgh and a Diomedian club-house "designed to furnish a modest home for young men just out of college" was established at 51 West 48th Street in New York.Preuss, Arthur A Dictionary of Secret and other Societies St. Louis: B. Herder Book Co. 1924; republished Detroit: Gale Reference Company 1966; pp.110-111
Chapters
Notable members
Member and chapter misconduct
Hazing and alcohol related deaths and injuries
Sigma Alpha Epsilon has had nine deaths linked to drinking, drugs and hazing since 2006, more than any other Greek organization, according to data compiled by Bloomberg in 2013. More than 100 chapters have been disciplined since 2007, with at least fifteen suspended or closed since 2010. A potential initiate to the SAE chapter at Salisbury University in Maryland alleged that Justin Stuart was beaten with a paddle, forced to drink alcohol to the point of losing consciousness and confined in a basement for nine hours without access to food, water or a bathroom while being subjected to music torture, an experience described as being "almost like Guantanamo Bay". The allegations were verified by a university investigation that led to the suspension of the chapter on the grounds that it had violated Salisbury policies on alcohol, hazing, and threats or acts of violence.
In May 2013, members of the Arizona State chapter allegedly left an underage member outside a hospital with a note saying "Ive [sic] been drinking and I need some help." The 20-year-old survived after nearly 20 shots of tequila resulting in a near lethal blood alcohol content of 0.47%, according to doctors.
In 2017, the University of Nevada, Reno suspended the Reno chapter of SAE due to allegations of hazing and underage drinking. The university ultimately voted to remove SAE's recognition for four years. As of 2023, the University of Nevada, Reno still does not recognize SAE, with that chapter still working towards recognition.
As a result of these incidents, student members pay among the highest rates for liability insurance of any fraternity. In March 2014, JPMorgan Chase stopped managing an investment account of SAE's charitable foundation, with bad publicity from hazing as the likely cause. In January 2019, a newly-initiated freshman member of the chapter at the University of California, Irvine died from alcohol poisoning with allegations of fraternity hazing rituals still under investigation.
In 2012, the national fraternity organization responded to hazing allegations, stating that it has "zero tolerance for hazing", and that the reported infractions represent a low percentage of its more than 219 chapters and 15,000 college members. Following the 2011 hazing-related death of a Cornell University sophomore who was blindfolded, bound and encouraged to ingest more alcohol as part of a drinking game. After passing out he was transported back to the fraternity house and left unsupervised on a couch where he died. A constitutional amendment to ban alcohol at all chapter houses was proposed at the 155th national conference, but the measure failed to reach the two-thirds majority needed.
In March 2014 the fraternity revised its membership process to replace the term "pledge" with "new member" and require that initiation be completed within 96 hours of new members receiving bids. The SAE national president cited efforts to combat hazing, treat all members of the fraternity equally, and to protect the reputation of the fraternity as primary reasons for the change.
Sexual assault and harassment
According to several campus newspapers and the 2015 documentary The Hunting Ground, students commonly joke that SAE stands for "Sexual Assault Expected" because of the many members who have been accused of sexual assault.
In 2012, an incident of alleged sexual misconduct involving a member at Louisiana State University (LSU) with a freshman girl occurred. Also that same year, the LSU chapter was accused of severely beating pledges. The chapter was suspended until January 2015.
In 2014, a rape allegedly took place at an SAE party at Loyola Marymount University. The national organization reacted by closing the chapter.
In December 2014, Stanford University announced a two-year suspension of SAE housing due to reports of sexual harassment. After a second university investigation found that members had deterred a student from filing a Title IX concern and had intimidated and harassed another student believed to have filed a Title IX complaint, the chapter's housing was "indefinitely" revoked in May 2015.
In January 2015, a victim was hospitalized following allegations of sexual assault at a party at a SAE Iowa State University party. The incident was investigated by police and the chapter suspended the member suspected of the assault.
In March 2015, Johns Hopkins University suspended the local SAE chapter until Spring 2016 after an alleged sexual assault at one of their parties.
The Yale University chapter was temporarily banned from using the university email and bulletin board system as well as association of the fraternity name and the university following "inappropriate comments" made by SAE members.
In February 2017, the SAE chapter at Northwestern University was suspended indefinitely after four women alleged they were given date rape drugs at an SAE party, and two stated they were later sexually assaulted.