Founded: March 9, 1856; University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa

Mission Statement: 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.

Membership: The Fraternity resides on college and university campuses, as a guest of the host institution. The current structure includes more than 8,200 undergraduates at more than 225 chapters in 47 states and Canada. Alumni are active in more than 75 alumni associations.

Governance Structure: The organization is governed through a five-person executive board (Supreme Council) that is elected at biennial conventions. An executive director (Eminent Supreme Recorder) supervises a staff of approximately 28 at the Fraternity Service Center in Evanston, Illinois, and eight regional directors. The United States and Canada are divided into 29 regions (provinces) overseen by regional volunteers called province archons. Each chapter is required to have an active chapter adviser.

Sigma Alpha Epsilon Foundation: The SAE Foundation was established in 1927 to create programs that promote the highest ideals of academic and personal development. The existing programs include named scholarships, a student-loan program and the international Leadership School that has produced more than 38,000 graduates. The SAE Foundation awards $69,000 in scholarships annually in support of its mission.

Prominent Alumni: William McKinley, Elliot Ness, David Spade, Phil Jackson, Dennis Erickson, William Faulkner, Joe Foss, Bob Ballard, General Richard Myers, Ernie Harwell, Tony Boselli, Bo Schembechler, Nick Lachey, Fred Savage, Pete Carroll, Mack Brown

Fast Facts: SAE is North America’s largest social fraternity with more than 280,000 initiated members. Fraternal symbols include the lion, the phoenix, Minerva, and the fleur-de-lis. Sigma Alpha Epsilon was the first fraternity to establish a national headquarters (1929), a national Leadership School (1935), a national Men’s Health Issues Committee (1980), and a career-development program entitled the Leading Edge (1990). Currently, the Fraternity offers a comprehensive member-education program called The True Gentleman Initiative. The Fraternity communicates through The Record magazine, a quarterly publication that has been published continuously since 1880. New members receive a copy of The Phoenix pledge manual for educational development.

Our Creed: 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

 
In 1946, G. Herbert Smith became President of Willamete University. For many years, local fraternities had existed on campus but were forbidden by the administration to seek National Charters. This prohibition was continued under President Smith until plans for adequate housing were developed. When ground was broken for what now is Baxter Hall, permission to seek National Charters was granted to the local fraternities. As a result of petitioning, three national fraternities, Beta Theta Pi, Sigma Chi, and Phi Delta Theta established a foothold on campus prior to the establishment of Sigma Alpha Epsilon. (Four national sororities were also established at that time. These were Alpha Chi Omega, Chi Omega, Delta Gamma, and Pi Beta Phi.)

Eventually, nearly every national fraternity was soliciting President Smith in hopes of establishing a Charter at Willamette. It was in the summer of 1946 that Al Schloth, Bill Kenney, Glen Nygreen, and several other SAE alumni and active members visited our campus and discussed a proposal of colonizing a chapter with President Smith. In a subsequent meeting, scores of alumni and actives in the Salem area persuaded President Smith to extend another invitation to a national fraternity. That fraternity was Sigma Alpha Epsilon. The Phi Alpha Colony of Sigma Alpha Epsilon was introduced to the Willamette campus.

The colony site of Willamette University was approved by the Permanent Extension Committee of Sigma Alpha Epsilon and then, by the Supreme Council at its winter meeting of 1946. It was then approved by Province Lambda during February of 1947.

In the meantime, at Willamette, Hu Brown, a transfer student from South Dakota Sigma, helped select the original members of Phi Alpha. They were assisted by Al Schloth, the Chapter Supervisor, and Bill Kenney. Enthusiastic support was given by the Salem Alumni Association and actives from both Oregon Alpha and Oregon Beta. They were a tremendous help during Rush by their advice and encouragement. Virgil Cavagnero, Eminent Archon of Oregon Alpha chaired the first Rush in the summer of 1947. On October 2nd, 1947, the Phi Alpha Colony was officially established. These men are honored as our Chapter's Charter Members:

Donald Yocum        Eldrid Hutchinson      Bruce Barker

Wallace Baumer     Peter Bryant            James Morris

Robert Robins        Theodore Johnson     John Byhre

Don Barkley          Robert Baker            Jack Frost

Howard Lorenz       Robert Lakie