Awards
We at ΣAE strive to be be the best at whatever we do, whether it be community service, intramural sports, leadership, academics, brotherhood, or campus involvement. In just 6 short years at the University of Louisville, our presence has been underscored with achievements in all areas of college and fraternity life. The KY Sigma chapter of ΣAE has had numerous accomplishments as a whole, accentuated by the individual honors brought to us by each of our members. Check out our website to see a full list of past achievements.
Organization Facts
Sigma Alpha Epsilon was founded March 9, 1856 at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa. Its eight founders included five seniors. Noble Leslie DeVotie, John Barratt Rudulph, Nathan Elams Cockrell, John Webb Kerr, and Wade Foster, and three juniors, Samuel Marion Dennis, Abner Edwin Patton and Thomas Chappell Cook. Their leader was DeVotie who had written the ritual, devised the grip and chosen the name. The badge was designed by Rudulph. Of all existing fraternities today, Sigma Alpha Epsilon is the only one founded in the ante-bellum South.
Founded in a time of growing and intense sectional feeling, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, although it determined at the outset to extend to other colleges, confined its growth to the southern states. Extension was vigorous, however, and by the end of 1857 the fraternity counted seven chapters. Its first national convention met in the summer of 1858 at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, with four of its eight chapters in attendance. By the time of the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, fifteen chapters had been established. The fraternity had fewer than four hundred members when the Civil War began. Of those, 369 went to war for the Confederacy and seven fought with the Union forces. Every member of the chapters at Hampden-Sydney, Georgia Military Institute, Kentucky Military Institute and Oglethorpe University fought for the gray. Members from the Columbian College, William and Mary and Bethel (KY) were in both armies. Seventy members of the fraternity lost their lives in the War, including Noble Leslie DeVotie, who is officially recorded in the annals of the War as the first man on either side to give his live.
Chapter Facts
The University of Louisville was founded in 1798 and has an enrollment of more than 22,000 students. The University is located in the historic downtown district of Old Louisville. Louisville, Kentucky is located on the banks of the Ohio River and is home to more than one million residents, the Louisville Slugger Museum, and the Kentucky Derby, which is run at Churchill Downs just one mile from campus.
In less than two years, the Kentucky Sigma colony at the University of Louisville in Louisville, Kentucky, obtained their charter of Chapterhood on March 27, 1999. The charter dinner gala was held on the night of the 27th, which followed the morning initiation.
1st MeetingIn October of 1996, nine friends at the University of Louisville joined together to pursue a Colony Charter from the Sigma Alpha Epsilon International Fraternity. These initial founders were united in their hopes of forming a fraternity for leaders, scholars, and gentlemen. In the months that followed each proved that he and his university were worthy of a Colony. On February 1, 1997, Bryan Ott, Education and Leadership Consultant at that time installed thirteen young men as the University of Louisville Colony. These men, with the aid of Foster Cotthoff, an alumnus of Kentucky Kappa, and EA Christopher Davenport, KYSI pledged themselves to the pursuit of knowledge, character, and the ideals of The True Gentleman. They will forever be known as the Kentucky Sigma Alpha Class. Kentucky Sigma has continually grown in both membership and programming. Each semester brings about new activities and challenges for its members. Sigma Alpha Epsilon has maintained a strong presence in Greek Life at the University of Louisville, holding such honors as highest GPA among Interfraternity Council members with a 3.0 GPA for the 1998-99 school year, also receiving scholarship awards from the IFC and the University. The brothers of KYSI hold many important positions on campus, and have volunteered more than twenty-five hundred hours of service to the University and the Louisville community since their beginning. On December 5, 1998, the Out-of-Province Investigation Committee recommended Kentucky Sigma for a charter. Twenty-five months after its colonization began, thirty-four gentlemen from Kentucky Sigma were installed with a Charter of Chapter-hood. Kentucky Sigma bases its brotherhood on leadership, scholarship, community service, and what else but great parties.
Address
Chapter website: http://www.uoflsae.com
Inter/National website: http://www.sae.net/