FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
8 November 2017
Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity Announces Ban on Alcohol
Ban on all illegal substances approved by national fraternity.
Sigma Phi Epsilon (SigEp) national fraternity announced that it has adopted a substance-free policy for all Fraternity facilities throughout its network of 215 chapters at colleges and universities in the United States.
“As recent tragic events have demonstrated, fraternities today have real problems,” said SigEp CEO Brian Warren. “Sigma Phi Epsilon and our peers have unfortunately earned a reputation for being organizations that promote alcohol consumption, misogyny and violence. For SigEp, there can be no more discussion about maintaining that status quo. Fraternities must change.”
Sigma Phi Epsilon has demonstrated a commitment to creating a new normal for fraternities. In the last two years, SigEp has removed pledging from its membership experience and established substance-free chapter houses as the nationwide standard.
“We believe these steps are necessary to accomplish our mission of promoting academic excellence and empowering our 14,000 young men to lead with integrity, not just now but for the rest of their lives,” said Warren. “When we deliver on this mission, our entire society benefits from a generation of values-based leaders. But first we must address the basic health and safety of our students by doing away with archaic and dangerous activities.
We are reaching out to our host universities and our fraternal peers to engage them in these much-needed reforms. We hope our overtures for collaboration will be met with immediate and positive response. Together, we must eradicate drug and alcohol abuse as an element of our organizations. And we must do it now.”
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Sigma Phi Epsilon is an American college fraternity with more than 14,000 undergraduates on 215 campuses across the United States. Established in 1901, its mission is “Building Balanced Men,” which is achieved through a continuous member development program focused on academic achievement, healthy lifestyle choices and leadership development. The Fraternity currently maintains a 3.20 national GPA.
It’s way past time to implement our policy without delay, nationwide. It’s simply the right thing to do and, to my way of thinking, if you don’t agree, get out of the way! Our Balanced Man standard deserves nothing less.
As a longtime life member of Sigma Phi Epsilon (Alabama Alpha), I understand the need to move to a different dynamic in how our fraternity works. During my time in chapter, alcohol was aregular part of parties – not so much during the regular week or, certainly not, during “help” week for pledges. I think I can speak for the great majority of the Brothers of my era in saying that we certainly need to do what is right today for our Brothers to experience the values we learned during our time. We were blessed to have great older Brothers to teach by their example, as to academics, concern and love for each other and the need to become “men” – upholding the principles of our fraternity. I count my Sig Ep undergraduate time as one of the most benificial learning experiences of my life – fortunate to have older Brothers to counsel and guide my thinking and actions and to have a dedicated chapter advisor to assist. Most of my contemporary Brothers (about 3 years on each side of my graduation year) continue to be in contact and get together. Frankly, had it not been for Sig Ep, I would have likely been a leaf in the wind in college – my Sig Ep brothers helped keep me on a good path. I count my time in Alabama Alpha as one of the great learning experiences in my life.