Congratulations on your son’s membership in Sigma Phi Epsilon. Please use this resource page to learn more about the many opportunities the Fraternity can provide your son. You can also learn more about volunteering or philanthropic opportunities. For general inquiries, please click here.
When your son decided to become a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon (SigEp), he made one of the most important decisions of his college career. He chose an organization that is committed to his success during all of his college years.
When he joined SigEp, you became a part of his experience as well. This resource is aimed at helping you understand his involvement in our Fraternity and our goals for his college experience. Sigma Phi Epsilon’s goal is to give him the opportunities to excel in academics, leadership, athletics and social skills.
SigEp was founded in 1901 on the Cardinal Principles of Virtue, Diligence and Brotherly Love. Since that time we have been leading the way in the Greek world. In 1959, SigEp was among the first to remove race restrictions to membership. In 1991, we led the way again by creating a non-pledging membership model, the Balanced Man Program (BMP), and in 2015 our undergraduates voted to adopt the program across all our chapters. In 2017, our undergraduates enacted a policy that made our chapter facilities alcohol and substance-free.
Leadership Programs
The college years are some of the most formative times in a young man’s life. The national Fraternity’s work focuses on educating, training and supporting our chapters to provide a safe and positive fraternity experience. The experience we provide is meant to complement a man’s education and prepare him for life after college. Through SigEp, men strengthen their character, build leadership and interpersonal skills, and learn to develop healthy, lifelong relationships that are essential to a successful and fulfilling life.
SigEp’s Balanced Man Program was created to replace pledging and hazing with mentoring and development opportunities that instill purpose and perspective our young men can rely on for the rest of their lives. It reinforces academic excellence, empowers them to lead with integrity, promotes physical health and mental wellness, and prepares them for successful lives and careers.
Your son will also have the opportunity to attend our regional and national leadership events, designed to enhance the local chapter programming that helps him grow throughout college. Whether he attends the Carlson Leadership Academy to learn leadership techniques he can take back to his chapter, Life After College to help him prepare for post-college life, the Ruck Leadership Institute to teach him to lead positive change, or the Tragos Quest to Greece for an overseas personal growth experience, he has many options to attend programs that will prepare him for the rest of his life.
The Fraternity’s Headquarters staff of over 50 brothers and other professionals based in Richmond, Va., works to facilitate these programs and educate our young brothers on how to have a positive, safe fraternity experience that helps them develop.
Member Safety
The SigEp experience has the potential to be life-changing for thousands of young men on campuses across the country. Your son is now a part of that experience and he should have high expectations for his growth and development during college. Likewise, SigEp has high expectations of its members — specifically, that they always strive to keep themselves and others safe.
Our undergraduate brothers have a history of making decisions that better facilitate safe environments for our members. In 2015, undergraduate delegates voted to end pledging, abandoning a tiered membership system that can create unnecessary risk. The Fraternity adopted the Balanced Man Program, built on equal rights and responsibilities for all members. In 2014, SigEp developed Live Your Oath with Alpha Delta Pi Sorority to educate our brothers about sexual assault prevention. And, in 2017, our undergraduates once again took a bold step when they voted to make all of our chapter homes alcohol- and substance-free.
SigEp brothers are only able to achieve our mission of Building Balanced Men when health and safety are priorities. We expect members to comply with a zero-tolerance policy for behavior that doesn’t align with our values — things like hazing, sexual assault, alcohol abuse and illegal drugs. We hope that you will reinforce this expectation with your son. Any instance of this behavior should be reported to our fraternity's services team at chapter.services@sigep.net or by calling our crisis hotline at 804.353.1901 (During business hours press 0. After hours, please select option 1.)
Sigma Phi Epsilon is not able to monitor or supervise the daily activities of each member and our chapters as a whole. However, we can provide education and resources to the chapter so they can make better decisions for their safety. On our Member Safety page, you can find SigEp’s Risk Management Policies and Procedures as well as some useful resources that can help your son foster a safe and healthy environment for himself and his brothers.
SigEp thrives when our brothers are committed to safe and healthy living. Thanks to the support of committed parents and volunteers, thousands of young SigEp brothers are able to grow and develop safely. They hone lifelong skills and build friendships for life. We hope that you will discuss this with your son and ask him to be a leader in creating a positive environment on his campus.
We Need You
As your son grows throughout his college experience, we hope you can continue to be involved with his development in SigEp.
SigEp undergraduate chapters are primarily focused on providing the best possible experience for our members. But as one of our Past Grand Presidents, Phil Cox, Indiana ’84, often said, “Behind every great chapter is a dedicated group of volunteers.”
Men and women who volunteer provide important support to undergraduate SigEps, and our highest-performing chapters have strong bases of volunteers. Our local volunteers provide mentorship to the undergraduate chapter leaders, engage other chapter alumni to support this endeavor and manage the assets of the AVC. They come from many walks of life and different ties to the Fraternity.
Tim's Story
For Tim, it was important to be involved in his son's college decision — after all, he and his wife Maureen had raised his son and wanted to maintain a connection with him after he went off to college. Tim was excited when his son chose to attend Virginia Tech, but was a bit uncertain when he heard he was considering joining a fraternity.
A few months later, it was clear that Tim's son had made the right choice by joining SigEp. Tim saw how his son was growing, and the good habits he was picking up from his fraternity brothers. As Tim had done through his son's life, he got involved in what mattered to his son. There was an opportunity to support his SigEp chapter, and he began using his professional experience to mentor the chapter's vice president of finance.
Over the course of a couple years, Tim's mentorship made a real impact in helping the 40-man chapter get on sound financial footing, and he attended the Carlson Leadership Academy with the undergraduates. Not only did Tim gain something in common with his son, he got to know his son's friends and reaped tremendous personal benefit from helping improve the college experience of the young men in the chapter. Even after his son has graduated, Tim is continuing to mentor the chapter's leaders.
Whether you live in the same city as your son’s chapter or a few hours away, I would encourage you to consider finding an opportunity to volunteer. Opportunities are available for men and women in many different capacities that benefit both your son and his chapter brothers. If you’d like to explore volunteering with SigEp, you can check out our Volunteers page. Many of our volunteers interact with their chapters virtually, so if you’re not in the area, don’t let that stop you from getting involved.
SigEp works hard to provide the positive experience we’ve told you about in these messages, but we cannot deliver it to our undergraduates without the support of volunteers, alumni, and parents. If you’re not able to volunteer, you can get involved financially through the Sigma Phi Epsilon Educational Foundation, which supports our mission of Building Balanced Men through undergraduate scholarships and leadership programming on national and local levels.
We want to remain connected with you as we support your son’s success during and after his undergraduate career. I hope you’ve enjoyed learning about how SigEp is redefining fraternity for our brothers’ benefit, and I hope you’ll refer back to this content as you hear more from your son about his experience.
