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Sigma Chi

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Sigma Chi
ΣΧ
The Coat of Arms of Sigma Chi Fraternity
Founded28 June, 1855
Miami University, Oxford, Ohio
TypeSocial
ScopeInternational
MottoIn Hoc Signo Vinces ("In This Sign You Will Conquer")
ColorsBlue and Old Gold
SymbolThe White Cross
FlowerWhite Rose
Chapters217 undergraduate, 145 alumni
ManualThe Norman Shield
Headquarters1714 Hinman Avenue
Evanston, Illinois
USA
WebsiteSigma Chi Website

Sigma Chi (ΣΧ) is one of the largest and oldest international all-male college social fraternities, with chapters at universities predominantly in the United States and several in Canada. Sigma Chi was founded in 1855 at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio when members split from Delta Kappa Epsilon. Sigma Chi had seven founding members: Benjamin Piatt Runkle, Thomas Cowan Bell, William Lewis Lockwood, Isaac M. Jordan, Daniel William Cooper, Franklin Howard Scobey, and James Parks Caldwell. Sigma Chi is a part of the Miami Triad, along with Beta Theta Pi and Phi Delta Theta.

The fraternity's official colors are blue and old gold, and its badge is a white cross with emblems on its arms: Crossed keys on the upper arm, an eagle's head on the right arm, seven gold stars and a pair of clasped hands on the lower arm, and a scroll on the left arm. In the center of the cross, on a black background, are the gold symbols for the Greek letters Sigma and Chi. The left and right arms are connected to the upper arm by linked gold chains.

Membership in Sigma Chi involves both service-oriented activities as well as social bonding for its members. Sigma Chi's suggested beneficiaries for chapter community service projects are the Children's Miracle Network and the Huntsman Cancer Institute. Since 1992 Sigma Chi chapters have raised more than $4.2 million dollars for area CMN hospitals [1] and devoted thousands of hours of service to CMN affiliates. The Huntsman Cancer Institute was added as another beneficiary in 2005. In the 2005 - 2006 academic year, Sigma Chi raised $473,757.43 for the Children's Miracle Network, as well as $55,244.63 for the Huntsman Cancer Institute.

The fundamental purpose of this fraternity is to promote the concepts of Friendship, Justice, and Learning within its membership.

As of 2006, the Sigma Chi Fraternity consists of 213,535 living brothers and 217 active undergraduate chapters at colleges and universities throughout the United States and Canada, and 145 alumni groups and alumni brothers around the world [2]. Every two years, delegates from all undergraduate chapters and alumni chapters meet for the Grand Chapter- in which Grand Officers, the International Sweetheart of Sigma Chi, and the International Balfour Award winner are elected, and revisions to the General Fraternity's Governing Laws and Ritual are proposed and debated.

Sigma Chi was honored by the United States Congress on its 150th anniversary on June 13th, 2005, becoming the first Greek letter society so honored. [3].

The Sigma Chi Foundation supports several leadership programs for the fraternity. The Balfour Leadership Training Workshop, held annually, is the largest gathering of its kind in the Greek-letter world. Horizons is an experiential leadership week spent in the mountains of Snowbird, Utah. Cornerstone is an effective mentor initiative that fosters alumni-undergraduate relations at the chapter level. The foundation also funds and distributes several undergraduate and graduate scholarships. Former NASA astronaut Greg Harbaugh currently serves as the foundation's president and CEO.

Founding

The founding of Sigma Chi came as the result of a disagreement over who would be named Poet in the Erodelphian Literary Society of old Miami University in Ohio.

Several members of Miami University's Delta Kappa Epsilon chapter (of which all but one of Sigma Chi's Founders were members) were also members of the Erodelphian Literary Society. In the fall of 1854 this society was to pick its Poet, and a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon (a "Deke") wanted the position. He was supported by five of his brothers, but four others (Caldwell, Jordan, Runkle, and Scobey) felt that he lacked poetic talent. These men instead chose to give their support to another man who was not a Deke. Bell and Cooper were not members of Erodelphian, but their support for the dissenting four was unequivocal.

In 1854 Delta Kappa Epsilon at Miami University had 12 members, so the disagreement over who to support as Poet evenly divided the chapter. Other differences might have been forgotten, but both sides saw this conflict as a matter of principle and over the next few months there came a distancing of their friendship.

The matter finally came to a head in February of 1855, when, in an attempt to seal the rift, Runkle and his companions planned a dinner for their brothers. The feast was prepared, and the table was set, but only one of the men who supported the Deke as poet arrived, Whitelaw Reid. With him Reid brought a stranger. The six learned that the stranger was an alumnus of DKE from a nearby town.

File:Sigma Chi Founders.jpg
Founders of Sigma Chi

"My name is Minor Millikin; I live in Hamilton," said the man. "I am a man of few words." Reid had told Millikin his side of the dispute, and the two were present to lay down punishment on Runkle, Scobey, and the rest. The leaders of the rebellion (Runkle and Scobey) were to be expelled from the fraternity. The other four, after being properly chastised, would be allowed to stay a part of the group.

At the announcement of the punishment Runkle stepped forward. He pulled off his Deke pin, tossed it to the table, and said, "I didn't join this fraternity to be anyone's tool! And that, sir," addressing Millikin, "is my answer!" Runkle stalked from the room and his five brothers followed. One final chapter meeting was held, at which the chapter was six-to-six divided on the issue of expulsion. The parent chapter at Yale University was contacted, and all six men were formally excommunicated.

The six men soon associated themselves with William Lewis Lockwood, a student from New York who had not joined a fraternity. Lockwood's natural business acumen helped to organize the fraternity in its early years. On June 28th, 1855 (Commencement at Old Miami), the Sigma Phi Fraternity was founded.

The theft of the Constitution, Ritual, Seals and other records from Founder Lockwood's room in Oxford in January, 1856 necessitated the change of the name of the Fraternity to Sigma Chi. Eventually, this action would have been forced upon the group as there was already a Sigma Phi Society in the collegiate world.

Leadership Programs

Balfour Leadership Training Workshop

The Balfour Leadership Training Workshop, established in 1947, is a program designed to improve the quality of leadership in the Fraternity. Each August, leaders from Sigma Chi's undergraduate chapters spend three days on a college campus, immersed in presentations, discussions, and problem solving sessions about chapter operations and other issues that affect a chapter's viability.

Horizons

Horizons is a leadership program specifically created for Sigma Chi underclassmen who are eager and willing to improve themselves and their world. At Horizons, undergraduates experience a six-day immersion in whole-brained learning that engages both mind and body. The program was initially funded by Bob McNair, owner of the Houston Texans.

Cornerstone

The Cornerstone program is designed to provide alumni leaders with the tools they need to efficiently support undergraduate chapters. This mentorship program encourages alumni participation and growth at undergraduate chapters, Cornerstone aims to bring professionally-trained mentors to every Sigma Chi chapter. Mentors assist undergraduates by increasing leadership training and improving academic performance and general operations. Cornerstone mentors have an unequivocal commitment to the ideals of Sigma Chi, willingness to be a role model and accessibility and availability to the chapter and its members. Through the support of Jesse R. "Bob" Stone, three short Buildling On Our Brotherhood films were produced about the Cornerstone Program.

Literature of Sigma Chi

Purpose

The purpose of this fraternity shall be to cultivate and maintain the high ideals of friendship, justice and learning upon which Sigma Chi was founded.

Creed

I believe in fairness, decency and good manners. I will endeavor to retain the spirit of youth. I will try to make my college, the Sigma Chi Fraternity, and my own chapter more honored by all men and women and more beloved and honestly respected by our own brothers. I say these words in all sincerity; That Sigma Chi has given me favor and distinction; that the bond of our fellowship is reciprocal, that I will endeavor to so build myself and so conduct myself that I will ever be a credit to our Fraternity.

-George Ade, Purdue University, Class of 1887

Jordan Standard

The confidence of the founders of Sigma Chi was based on a belief that the principles which they professed and the ideal of the Fraternity which they sought were but imperfectly realized in the organizations by which they were surrounded.

The standard with which the fraternity started was declared by Issac M. Jordan to be that of admitting no man to membership in Sigma Chi who is not believed to be:

  • A Man of Good Character.......
  • A Student of Fair Ability.......
  • With Ambitious Purposes.......
  • A Congenial Disposition.......
  • Possessed of Good Morals.......
  • Having a High Sense of Honor and
  • A Deep Sense of Personal Responsibility.

-Founder Isaac M. Jordan addressed the 15th Grand Chapter in 1884, his speech provided the basic 7 points for the current Jordan Standard.

Spirit

The spirit of Sigma Chi, as conceived by the Founders more than 150 years ago yet visible and alive today, is based on the theory that...

  • friendship among members, sharing a common belief in an ideal, and possessing different temperaments, talents, and convictions...
  • is superior to friendship among members having the same temperaments, talents, and convictions; and that...
  • genuine friendship can be maintained without surrendering the principle of individuality or sacrificing one's personal judgment.

The Spirit of Sigma Chi was written by the Fraternity to honor and pay homage to the beliefs of Franklin Howard Scobey who believed strongly in the ideal that friendship among members of different temperaments, talents and convictions is superior to friendship among those who are all similar.

My Badge

I might be forced to admit that there is some similarity between the ideals of Sigma Chi and those other fraternities but I will not share the beautiful and the symbolic supremacy of the White Cross of Sigma Chi with any other badge in the Greek world. The badge of my fraternity is a cross, a sign and a symbol known to all the world, uplifting HIM of whom our badge reminds us.

It is not a shield of timid defense nor a drawn sword of oppressive aggression nor an arrow swift and sure on its mission of death. It is not a diamond so rich and so rare as to have no part in the common crowd nor a crescent pale and incomplete nor a star shining with a borrowed ray. It is not a lamp whose feeble flame is extinguished by the slightest gust of wind that blows; nor a simple monogram of mysterious Greek letters presuming to reveal some hidden meaning.

But a cross with its base planted in the common clay of earth; its arms outstretched to all the world and its head lifted heavenward. It is a White Cross, suggesting purity. As any pure white surface reflects all the rays of light without the absorption of any, so the White Cross of Sigma Chi reflects its ideals unselfishly to all Mankind.

- W. Henry McLean, DePauw University, Class of 1910

The Sweetheart of Sigma Chi

When the world goes wrong as it's bound to do, and you've broken Dan Cupid's bow, and you long for the girl you used to love, the maid of the long ago, why light your pipe, bid sorrow avaunt, blow the smoke from your altar of dreams, and wreathe the face of your dream girl there, the love that is just what it seems, the girl of my dreams is the sweetest girl of all the girls I know, each sweet coed like a rainbow trail fades in the afterglow, the blue of her eyes and the gold of her hair are a blend of the western sky, and the moonlight beams on the girl of my dreams, she's the Sweetheart of Sigma Chi.

-Often called the most beloved and popular of college fraternity songs, "The Sweetheart of Sigma Chi" was written in 1911 by Byron D. Stokes (Albion, Class of 1911) and F. Dudleigh Vernor (Albion, Class of 1913). Stokes had written the words while in class one June day that year, and presented them that afternoon to Vernor, who was practicing the organ in the chapel, and composed the music at that time. The song has since become a favorite among ballroom orchestras and was used in two movie musicals of the same name, in 1933 and 1946. When asked about the song's inspiration, Stokes replied, "The 'Sweetheart' is the symbol for the spiritual ingredient in brotherhood. It was the Sigma Chi Fraternity itself that inspired the song. I wrote the words not long after my initiation, and the magic of our Ritual with its poetic overtones and undertones was, I suppose, the source of my inspiration."

Notable "Sigs"

Athletics

Politics and government

Entertainment and media

Business, technology and medicine

Military

Partial list of chapters

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