Sigma
Alpha Epsilon is a secret letter, social college fraternity. Founded on
March 9, 1856 , it has initiated more men since its founding than any other fraternity with more than 282,000 initiated members. At present, SAE (as it is nicknamed) has more than 8,200 undergraduates at more than 250 chapters in 48 states. It was the first fraternity to establish a national headquarters (Levere Memorial Temple on the campus of Northwestern University in Chicago1929), a national Leadership
School (1935), a national Men's Health Issues Committee (1980), and a career-development program tailored for the community ("The Leading Edge" in 1990).
Currently, the Fraternity offers a comprehensive member-
education program called The True
Gentleman Initiative. The Fraternity communicates through The Record, a quarterly publication that has been published continuously since 1880 . New members receive a copy of The
Phoenix, the manual of Sigma
Alpha Epsilon, for educational development.
The creed of this fraternity is as follows:
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 (Virginia Omicron Chapter 1899)
Sigma Alpha Epsilon is the largest social fraternity in the
United States, yet some
people are surprised that with 282,000+ members, some of the chapters are comprised of dicks, and choose to judge the whole fraternity harshly as a result.
Sigma Alpha Epsilon should strive to humble themselves before berating these
people for their ignorance.
