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Epsilon Epsilon

Oklahoma State University

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Awards

Rock Chapter: 2006, 2004, 2002, 1986, 1982
Number of Alpha Affiliates: 31
*The prestigious award of Rock Chapter is the highest honor a Sigma Nu chapter can receive internationally
*The Epsilon Epsilon chapter has the highest number of Alpha Affiliates internationally. The Alpha Affiliation is awarded to the top 10 Sigma Nu Seniors internationally.

Organization Facts

Founded: January 1, 1869
Colors: Black, White, and Gold
Flower: White Rose
Nickname: "Snakes"

Sigma Nu's history began in the period following the American Civil War, when a Confederate veteran from Mississippi enrolled at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington Virginia. That cadet was James Frank Hopkins, and it is to him and two of his classmates that Sigma Nu owes its existence. When Hopkins enrolled at VMI, the South was in a state of turmoil, only beginning to recover from its devastating military defeat. VMI was recognized for its civil engineering program at a time when the South needed engineers to repair its bridges, railroads and general infrastructure. At the Institute, cadets suffered from the aftermath of war and its disruption of 19th Century home life. No less insufferable was the institutional system of physical harassment imposed on lower classmen by their own upper classmen.
Hopkins had experienced military subservience during the war, and was willing to tolerate a reasonable amount of constraint intended to induce discipline. However, Hopkins was unwilling to accept any amount of hazing, as then tolerated at VMI, in the name of his Christian faith. "Not one ounce of hazing" was he willing to suffer and he was doggedly adamant to eliminate it.
Today, a portion of the limestone outcropping where the Fraternity was founded sits outside its Lexington headquarters.Two classmates and close friends who were also unhappy with the hazing situation soon joined Hopkins. They were Greenfield Quarles, from Arkansas, a Kentuckian by birth, and James McIlvaine Riley from St. Louis, Missouri. These three men began a movement to completely abolish the hazing system at VMI. Their efforts climaxed on a moonlit October night in 1868, presumably following Bible study at the superintendent's home, when the three met at a limestone outcropping on the edge of the VMI parade ground. Hopkins, Quarles and Riley clasped hands on the Bible and made a solemn pledge to form a new brotherhood.

The vows taken by these three Founders bound them together to oppose hazing at VMI and encouraged the application of the Principle of Honor in all their relationships. That the founders should adopt Honor as a guiding principle was a natural move since a rigid code of Honor was already an established tradition of the VMI Corps of Cadets. The Honor system at VMI required each cadet to conform to the duty imposed by his conscience that each act be governed by a high sense of honor.

Chapter Facts

Founded: November 13, 1920
National Philanthropy: Christopher Reeve Foundation
Local Philanthropy: Habitat for Humanity
Number Initiated: 2372

Address

913 West University
Stillwater, OK 74074
Chapter website: http://www.osusigmanu.com
Inter/National website: http://www.sigmanu.org/

Contacts

Phone: (405) 372-3377

Commander: Mark McClure, mark.mcclure@okstate.edu
Lieutenant Commander: David McKellips, david.mckellips@okstate.edu