Long before Andrew Lohse became a pariah at Dartmouth College, he was just another scarily accomplished teenager with lofty ambitions. Five feet 10 with large blue eyes and the kind of sweet-faced demeanor that always earned him a pass, he grew up in the not-quite-rural, not-quite-suburban, decidedly middle-class town of Branchburg, New Jersey, and attended a public school where he made mostly A’s, scored 2190 on his SATs and compiled an exhaustive list of extracurricular activities that included varsity lacrosse, model U.N. (he was president), National Honor Society, band, orchestra, Spanish club, debate and – on weekends – a special pre-college program at the Manhattan School of Music, where he received a degree in jazz bass. He also wrote songs; gigged semiprofessionally at restaurants throughout New York, New Jersey and Connecticut; played drums for a rock band; chased, and conquered, numerous girls; and by his high school graduation, in 2008, had reached the pinnacle of adolescent cool by dating “this really hot skanky cheerleader,” as he puts it. This did not go over well.
At a college where two-thirds of the upperclassmen are members of Greek houses, fraternities essentially control the social life on campus. To criticize Dartmouth’s frats, which date back more than 150 years, is tantamount to criticizing Dartmouth itself, the smallest and most insular school in the Ivy League. Nestled on a picturesque campus in tiny Hanover, New Hampshire, the college has produced a long list of celebrated alumni – among them two Treasury secretaries (Timothy Geithner, ’83, and Henry Paulson Jr., ’68), a Labor secretary (Robert Reich, ’68) and a hefty sampling of the one percent (including the CEOs of GE, eBay and Freddie Mac, and the former chairman of the Carlyle Group). Many of these titans of industry are products of the fraternity culture: Billionaire hedge-fund manager Stephen Mandel, who chairs Dartmouth’s board of trustees, was a brother in Psi Upsilon, the oldest fraternity on campus. Jeffery Immelt, the CEO of GE, was a Phi Delt, as were a number of other prominent trustees, among them Morgan Stanley senior adviser R. Bradford Evans, billionaire oilman Trevor Rees-Jones and venture capitalist William W.
Hank Paulson belonged to Lohse’s fraternity, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, or SAE.In response to Lohse’s op-ed, the Dartmouth community let loose a torrent of vitriol against him on The Dartmouth‘s website. Lohse, it was decided, was “disgruntled” and a “criminal.” His “blanket and bitter portrayal of the Greek system” was not only false, complained one alumnus, “but offensive to tens of thousands of Dartmouth alumni who cherished the memories of their fraternities.” Another alumnus put it this way in a mock letter to a human-resources manager: “Dear.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Sigma Alpha Epsilon(ΣΑΕ)FoundedMarch 9, 1856 ( 1856-03-09) (154 years ago)TypeScopeInternationalMission StatementThe 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 'The True Gentleman.' MottoPhi Alpha (ΦΑ)ColorsRoyal Purple and Old GoldSymbol,FlowerPublicationThe Phi Alpha, The RecordChapters300Members11,000+ collegiate300,000+ lifetimeHeadquarters1856 Sheridan Road, Illinois,HomepageSigma Alpha Epsilon ( ΣΑΕ, also SAE) is a Greek-letter social college founded at the on March 9, 1856.
Of all existing national social fraternities today, Sigma Alpha Epsilon is the only one founded in the. Its national headquarters, the Levere Memorial Temple, was established on the campus of in in 1929.Sigma Alpha Epsilon is the largest by total initiates, with more than 300,000 initiated members and more than 11,000 undergraduates at 300 chapters in 49 states and provinces at present. The creed of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, must be memorized and recited by all prospective members. New members receive a copy of The Phoenix, the manual of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, for educational development. The Founding of Sigma Alpha Epsilon.Founded in a time of intense sectional feeling, Sigma Alpha Epsilon confined its growth to the southern states. By the end of 1857, the fraternity numbered seven chapters. Its first national convention met in the summer of 1858 at, with four of its eight chapters in attendance.
By the time of the outbreak of the in 1861, fifteen chapters had been established.None of the founders of SAE were members of any other fraternity, though Noble Leslie Devotie had been invited to join all the other fraternities at the University of Alabama before founding Sigma Alpha Epsilon.The fraternity had fewer than 400 members when the began. Of those, 369 went to war for the Confederate States. Seventy-four members of the fraternity, including Noble DeVotie, lost their lives in the war.
DeVotie, who served as a in the Confederate Army, is noted as the first Alabama soldier to lose his life in the 'War of Rebellion.' After the Civil War, only one chapter survived - at tiny Columbian College (which is now ) in.When a few of the young veterans returned to the and found their college burned to the ground, they decided to enter the in,. The founding of a chapter there at the end of 1865, along with the re-establishment of the chapter at the, led to the fraternity's revival. Soon, other chapters came back to life and, in 1867, the first post-war convention was held at, where a half-dozen revived chapters planned the fraternity's future growth.In the 1870s and early 1880s, more than a score of new chapters were formed. Older chapters died as fast as new ones were established.
By 1886, the fraternity had chartered 49 chapters, but few were active. The first northern chapter had been established at Pennsylvania College (now ), in 1883, and a second was placed at in two years later.Soon after, 16-year-old Harry Bunting entered Southwestern Presbyterian University in, now known as in. He was initiated into the Tennessee Zeta Chapter, which had previously initiated two of his brothers. In just eight years, Harry Bunting and his younger brother, George, emboldened Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapters to increase their membership. They wrote encouraging articles in the fraternity's quarterly journal, The Record, promoting better chapter standards.
Above all, they gave new life to old chapters in the South (including the mother chapter at Alabama) and founded new ones in the North and West. The Buntings were responsible for an explosion of growth, founding nearly 50 chapters of Sigma Alpha Epsilon. When Harry Bunting founded the chapter in 1894, he initiated as a charter member William Collin 'Billy' Levere. Bunting passed the torch of leadership to Levere, and for the next three decades, Levere's high spirits brought the fraternity to maturity.When Levere died on February 22, 1927, the fraternity's Supreme Council decided to name the new national headquarters building The Levere Memorial Temple.
Construction of the Temple, an immense German structure located near and across from the Northwestern University campus, was started in 1929, and the building was dedicated in the winter of 1930.When the Supreme Council met regularly in the early 1930s at the Temple, educator John O. Moseley, the fraternity's national president, lamented, 'We have in the Temple a magnificent school-house. Why can we not have a school?' Accordingly, the economic depression notwithstanding, the fraternity's first Leadership School was held under the direction of Moseley in the summer of 1935.
In the last years of Moseley's life, he served the fraternity as its executive secretary, capping an academic career that included two college presidencies. The True GentlemanThe True Gentleman is the creed of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, which was first adopted by the fraternity sometime in the 1930s. However, it wasn't until the 2001 Fraternity Convention in Orlando, Florida that it was officially adopted as the organization's creed. The definition was discovered by Judge Walter B.
Jones, who first came upon it in an Alabama Baptist quarterly of which he was the editor. He sent a copy of it to John O. Moseley, the leader of the annual Leadership Schools, who was quite taken with it. Moseley began using it at the schools. For many years, the author of it was thought to be anonymous until the 1970s when the editor of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon pledge manual, The Phoenix, Joseph Walt, discovered that the U.S.
Naval Academy in Annapolis also used it in a manual. The author was denoted there as one John Walter Wayland.
'The True Gentleman' had actually first appeared in The Baltimore Sun as part of a competition for the best definition of a true gentleman with Wayland's submission being crowned the winner.With his family's approval, John Walter Wayland was posthumously initiated into SAE during the Fraternity's 66th annual Leadership School in. The Virginia Omicron chapter at the University of Virginia was selected as Wayland's chapter since he had completed his master's degree at that institution in 1901. The Levere Memorial Temple. The Levere Memorial Temple in Evanston, IL.The fraternity's international headquarters, known as the Fraternity Service Center, is maintained at the Levere Memorial Temple in Evanston, Illinois.
Honoring all the members of the fraternity who have served their countries in the armed forces since 1856, it was dedicated on December 28, 1930. The museum on the first floor is devoted to a collection of interesting historical photographs, pictures, and collections from private sources. The walls of the building are hung with oil portraits of distinguished members. The basement contains the Panhellenic Room, on the ceiling of which are the coats-of-arms of 40 college fraternities and 17 sororities, while the niches on the north side contain large murals showing the founding of Phi Beta Kappa in 1776 and that of Sigma Alpha Epsilon in 1856, together with other murals depicting episodes in the history of the fraternity. Perhaps the most outstanding mural in the Panhellenic Room is the reproduction of Raphael's, painted by Johannes Waller in the 1930s.The building continues to be used for ceremonies and receptions by the various fraternities, sororities, and honor societies at Northwestern University.
The impressive chapel of the Temple, with its soaring vaulted ceiling and stained glass windows by Tiffany is used regularly for religious services, and has been the scene of many weddings of Evanstons and members of Sigma Alpha Epsilon. In fact, the entire building is open to the public for patriotic, religious, and educational purposes, while the library is also free to scholars seeking material pertaining to the history of any or all college fraternities and college organizations. GovernmentIn its early days, the government of the Fraternity was vested in a single chapter, designated the Grand Chapter. The first such chapter was North Carolina Xi at the, which was responsible only to the general convention, the last was Tennessee Omega at the, in Sewanee, Tennessee.Today Sigma Alpha Epsilon is governed by Fraternity Conventions which are held biennially. At Conventions, brothers from all over the country come together to consider modifications to the Fraternity Laws, to the Ritual and to elect national officers.
Between Conventions, SAE is governed by an all-volunteer Supreme Council; composed of the Eminent Supreme Archon (President), Eminent Supreme Deputy Archon (VP), Eminent Supreme Warden (Treasurer), Eminent Supreme Herald, and Eminent Supreme Chronicler. An Honorary Eminent Supreme Archon is also selected by the Past ESAs. The Executive Director of Sigma Alpha Epsilon (a full-time paid staff position) holds the title of Eminent Supreme Recorder and serves as the Chief Operating Officer of the organization. He is supported by a 25+ person full-time staff based at the Levere Memorial Temple as well as in the field. The Fraternity Convention also elects members to serve on the SAE Foundation Board of Directors (11-members total) and the SAE Financial and Housing Board of Directors (7-members total).In addition, Sigma Alpha Epsilon is governed more locally through Province Conventions. A province is a section of the Realm which is composed of nearby chapters. These provinces meet regularly to discuss issues concerning its individual chapters.
Each of the 30 provinces are led by a Province Archon supported by a Province Council. The RecordThe fraternity communicates through The Record magazine. It is published three times a year and has been continuously in publication since 1880. The magazine has become popular in social groups throughout the country.
The fall issue of The Record contains additional sections, such as Chapter Eternal and the annual report. All three issues are provided to active members and current donors to the Sigma Alpha Epsilon Foundation - at a circulation of approximately 30,000.As of May 5, 2009, The Record can be read online at. See also.References. SAE Facts.External links.