SIGEPCANES.COM

College, 20th century

Local History
The Florida Gamma Chapter was originally founded May 21st 1949. The chapter went dormant in 1976 because it was not financially healthy. It would be almost 10 years before Florida Gamma would come back. In 1983, nine men looking for something better at the University of Miami decided to restart SigEp. The Florida Gamma Chapter built itself up again, becoming the biggest chapter on campus. In fact, they were the first chapter to reach 100 men in a very long time at the University of Miami, and their men were the most diverse on campus. In the early 90's the chapter began recruiting classes that were too big, and consequently, got out of control. In 1993, they ran into problems with drugs, hate crimes, and even the production of fake licenses and were closed down. Florida Gamma had gone from a dynasty to disaster because people had forgotten the reasons that the founders envisioned when they started the chapter. Not only had Florida Gamma grown too fast, but they let arrogance emerge and become the catalyst for their destruction.

The Starting of the New Florida Gamma
The Universtiy of Miami did not want to allow sigma Phi Epsilon back to the campus. We had been kicked off twice before, so the situation looked bleak. In 1992, the "Balanced Man" Project was born and SigEp began building up a great name for itself. SigEp was the pioneer in the non-pledging system, and hazing seemed a thing of the past. With the entrance of Dean Gregory Singleton as the advisor for the Greek System at the University of Miami, talks of SigEp's recharting began. Singleton was a supporter of the "Balanced Man" Program because he had seen it work wonders.

In 1998, after rushing many other fraternities on campus, a large group of students were not satisfied completely with the choices presented to them. They were looking for something diferent, and there was a buzz about starting a new chapter at the University of Miami. Jose F. Diaz had rushed three other fraternities and none carried what he saw in Sigma Phi Epsilon at Florida International University, where his best friend, Johnny Trabanco had joined. Johnny got Jose in contact with SigEp Headquarters and they directed him to Ryan Brennan, the Director of Chapter Expansions for Sigma Phi Epsilon. When Jose heard that SigEp was indeed interested in coming back to Miami, he set up a meeting with Dean Singleton the first week of November and presented him with a list of 38 potential members. These were men that Jose had met in student government, the association of commuter students, class, and even in high school. Singleton said that now it was up to SigEp to make the next move.

In the last week of November, SigEp did just that, a move. Ryan Brennan flew down and began meeting with Sigma Phi Epsilon alumni in the Miami area and interested undergraduate members in hopes of re-colonizing in the Universtiy of Miami. As opposed to many re-charting efforts in other fraternities, this effort was not led by alumni, but by students. In fact, there was another group of four students led by freshman, Dennis Tolentino, from Plantation, Florida, that was interested in SigEp.

In January 1999, both groups of young men met and discussed the possibilities of starting this new chapter at the Universtiy of Miami. One of the things discussed at this meeting was a GPA requirement. Initially the GPA requirement was going to be a 3.0 but after much deliberation the par was set at 2.8, to distinguish SigEp from all the other fraternities on campus.

Around this time, an interest letter was sent to all non-Greek freshmen at the University telling them about SigEp. On February 11th and 12th the interest meeting was held and interview dates were set up for that week. Close to 100 men showed up to interviews that were headed by Ryan Brennan and Matt Strohschein, the regional director. During the interview men were judged on the four facets of SigEp: Gentlemen, Leader, Athlete, and Scholar. The two interviewers made sure that each gentleman brought something unique to the group and that each man was a potential leader. Of the 100 men that showed up 29 received bids. Of the initial 29 bids, the only gentleman that did not join was Mike Plasencia, one of Jose's friends from student government. On February 15th, 22 men joined the new re-colonized Sigma Phi Epsilon Chapter. A week later six more men joined. By the end of the Spring 1999 semester, Carlos Curbelo and Tim Seidensticker had become brothers, ending the semester with 30 brothers.

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