SIGEPCANES.COM

College, 20th century

Richmond College, where Sigma Phi Epsilon was founded in the early 20th century, was at the time attended by a mere 200 students, and perhaps between a third and a half of this number belonged to five fraternities. Kappa Alpha Order had come there in1870, Phi Kappa Sigma in 1873, Phi Gamma Delta in 1890, Pi Kappa Alpha in 1891 and Kappa Sigma in 1873. Phi Delta Theta, Sigma Chi and Sigma Alpha Epsilon had established chapters there which had expired. The little Baptist college was founded in 1830 and many of its graduates became Baptist ministers.

Most of the national fraternities, as their histories show, have been established simply because they were needed. The hunger for brotherhood was at the bottom of an unrest in young men's souls. Sigma Phi Epsilon was founded because twelve young collegians hungered for a campus fellowship based on Judeo/Christian ideals that neither the college community nor the fraternity system at the time could offer. Sigma Phi Epsilon was needed. It was founded, moreover, because the leadership which is required for such a project asserted itself in fortunate ways.

SIGMA PHI EPSILON FOUNDEDCarter Ashton Jenkens, the 18 year old son of a minister, had been a student at Rutgers University in New Jersey, where he had joined Chi Phi Fraternity. When he transferred to Richmond College in the fall of 1900, he desired to find companions to take the place of the Chi Phi brothers he had left behind at Rutgers. During the course of the term, he found five men who had already been drawn into a bond of an informal fellowship, and he urged them to join him in applying for a charter of Chi Phi at Richmond College. They agreed and the request was forwarded to Chi Phi only to meet with refusal because Chi Phi felt that Richmond College, as any college with less than 300 students, was too small for the establishment of a Chi Phi chapter.Wanting to maintain their fellowship, the six men decided to form their own local fraternity. Of the six men Jenkens was the only one who really knew what a fraternity was, so the task of drawing the plans for the new fraternity fell to him.Early records described Jenkens search for a philosophy upon which a new college fraternity could be built. He discovered in the Bible what he called "The greatest truth the world has ever known"A committee was appointed to discuss plans with the administration of the college where they requested to present their cas e. The fraternity committee was requested to explain:

1. The need for a new fraternity since chapters of the five national fraternities were on the campus and the total enrollment at Richmond College was less than 300.
2. The wisdom of this attempt to organize a new fraternity with twelve members, of.whom seven were seniors.
3. The right to name the new fraternity Sigma Phi, the name of an already established national fraternity.

The fraternity committee answered along this line: "This fraternity will be different, it will be based on the love of God and the principle of peace through brotherhood. The number of members will be increased from the undergraduate classes. We will change the name to Sigma Phi Epsilon" Though the discussion lasted for some time, the faculty committee was friendly and permission was granted for the organization of the new fraternity to procede, provided full responsibility for the consequences would rest on this group of twelve students.One of the founders, Lucian Cox, reflected on the Brotherhood that had inspired him and his brothers, when he wrote in the Sigma Phi Epsilon Journal, Vol 1 No. 1, March, 1904: "As a member of an ideal fraternity, the resources of every member of that body are my resources, the product of their lives is my daily life. The Fraternity is a common storehouse for experience, moral rectitude, and spirituality; the larger and purer the contribution of the individual the greater the resources of each member. Five men were pledged before Christmas and were initialed in January, 1902. The last three of the first group of twenty were initiated February 1, 1902, another was initialed in March.

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