About Sigma Alpha Epsilon
Our Mission
The mission of Sigma Alpha Epsilon is to promote the highest standards of friendship, scholarship, and service for our members based upon the ideals set forth by our Founders and as specifically enunciated in our creed, “The True Gentleman.”
Legacy
SAE is North America’s largest social fraternity with more than 310,000 initiated members.
Membership
The Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity has more than 240 chapters on college campuses throughout the United States, with nearly 14,000 collegiate members and 190,000 living alumni. We are the first national fraternity to establish a Leadership School to educate our undergraduates and the first national fraternity to build a central headquarters building. Sigma Alpha Epsilon has initiated more than 310,000 men since badge sequences were first recorded. The average colony size is 32 men, and the average colony GPA is 3.1.
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Quick Facts
National Founding Date: March 9, 1856
National Founding Location: University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa Motto: Phi Alpha Creed: The True Gentleman Colors: Royal Purple & Old Gold Flower: Violet Symbols: Minerva, Phoenix, Lion, Fleur-de-lis Publications: The Record, The Phi Alpha Headquarters: Levere Memorial Temple, Evanston IL |
The True Gentleman
The True Gentleman is the man whose conduct proceeds from good will and an acute sense of propriety, and whose self-control is equal to all emergencies; who does not make the poor man conscious of his poverty, the obscure man of his obscurity, or any man of his inferiority or deformity; who is himself humbled if necessity compels him to humble another; who does not flatter wealth, cringe before power, or boast of his own possessions or achievements; who speaks with frankness but always with sincerity and sympathy; whose deed follows his word; who thinks of the rights and feelings of others, rather than his own; and who appears well in any company, a man with whom honor is sacred and virtue safe. – John Walter Wayland
The True Gentleman is the fraternal creed of Sigma Alpha Epsilon. This is what our organization revolves around, and is the lifeblood of SAE. From the very first day a member enters SAE they are challenged to live the life of a True Gentleman. Members explorer the meaning of our sacred creed beyond just its words, and uncover its deepest of meanings.
National History
Sigma Alpha Epsilon was founded March 9, 1856 at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa. Its eight founders included five seniors. Noble Leslie DeVotie, John Barratt Rudolph, Nathan Elams Cockrell, John Webb Kerr, and Wade Foster, and three juniors, Samuel Marion Dennis, Abner Edwin Patton and Thomas Chappell Cook. Their leader was DeVotie who had written the ritual, devised the grip and chosen the name. The badge was designed by Rudolph. Of all existing fraternities today, Sigma Alpha Epsilon is the only one founded in the ante-bellum South.
Founded in a time of growing and intense sectional feeling, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, although it determined at the outset to extend to other colleges, confined its growth to the southern states. Extension was vigorous, however, and by the end of 1857 the Fraternity counted 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 of the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, fifteen chapters had been established.
The Fraternity had fewer than four hundred members when the Civil War began. Of those, 369 went to war for the Confederacy and seven fought with the Union forces. Every member of the chapters at Hampden-Sydney, Georgia Military Institute, Kentucky Military Institute an d Oglethorpe University fought for the gray. Members from the Columbian College, William and Mary and Bethel (KY) were in both armies. Seventy members of the Fraternity lost their lives in the War, including Noble Leslie DeVotie, who is officially recorded in the annals of the War as the first man on either side to give his life.
Founded in a time of growing and intense sectional feeling, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, although it determined at the outset to extend to other colleges, confined its growth to the southern states. Extension was vigorous, however, and by the end of 1857 the Fraternity counted 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 of the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, fifteen chapters had been established.
The Fraternity had fewer than four hundred members when the Civil War began. Of those, 369 went to war for the Confederacy and seven fought with the Union forces. Every member of the chapters at Hampden-Sydney, Georgia Military Institute, Kentucky Military Institute an d Oglethorpe University fought for the gray. Members from the Columbian College, William and Mary and Bethel (KY) were in both armies. Seventy members of the Fraternity lost their lives in the War, including Noble Leslie DeVotie, who is officially recorded in the annals of the War as the first man on either side to give his life.
Minerva
Minerva, the goddess of wisdom, was the daughter of Jupiter (Zeus). She was said to have leaped forth from his head, mature, and in complete armour. She presided over the useful and ornamental arts, both those of men – such as agriculture and navigation – and those of women, – spinning, weaving, and needlework. Minerva produced the olive tree, and was awarded a city; and it was named after her, Athens, her name in Greek being Athena.
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Phoenix
Greek mythology places the phoenix in Arabia where every morning at dawn it bathes in the water and sings a beautiful song. So beautiful is the song that the sun god would stop his chariot to listen. There only exists one phoenix at a time. When the phoenix feels death approaching it builds a nest, sets it on fire, and is consumed by the flames. A new phoenix springs forth from the pyre. It then embalms the ashes of it’s predecessor in an egg of myrrh and flies with it to the City of the Sun.
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Lion
The lion is a strong symbol of Sigma Alpha Epsilon. The Lion represents courage, strength, and heart. They are associated with radiant solar energy. In astrology, with the sign Leo, they remind us to take time to relax and bask in the sun and to enjoy the warmth of our accomplishments. Because they live and hunt together, Lions can also symbolize strength in our family and friendship ties.
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Coat-of-Arms
The coat-of-arms is a shield quartered, each quarter having a specific meaning to SAE brothers. A helmet, mantling, and a crest surmount the shield. The crest depicts Minerva, a lion, and the Greek letters ΦΑ in a wreath. Beneath the shield is a scroll bearing the name of the Fraternity in Greek. It should also be noted that the main logo used by our chapter comes from the first quarter of the coat-of-arms.
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Badge
The badge of the Fraternity is diamond-shaped, a little less than an inch long and bears on a background of Nazarene blue enamel the device of Minerva, with a lion crouching at her feet, above which are the letters Sigma Alpha Epsilon in gold. Below are the letters Phi Alpha on a white ground in a wreath. The colors are royal purple and old gold. The flower is the violet. The colors of the pledge pin are nazarene blue, white and gold with Phi Alpha in letters surrounded by a wreath.
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Flag
The flag is rectangular in form, the length being roughly one-and-a-half times the width. The background of the flag is royal purple. In a field of gold in the upper left corner of the flag appear the Greek letters ΦΑ in royal purple. Beneath the field are eight gold five-pointed stars, seven of which are arranged in circular form around the eight. The Greek letters ΣΑΕ appear in an ascending diagonal arrangement across the right side of the flag.
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