Sigma Chi History
Sigma Chi is one of the largest international all-male college social fraternities, with chapters at universities in Canada and the United States. Sigma Chi was founded in 1855 at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio when members split from Delta Kappa Epsilon. Sigma Chi has seven founding members: Benjamin Piatt Runkle, Thomas Cowan Bell, William Lewis Lockwood, Isaac M. Jordan, Daniel William Cooper, Franklin Howard Scobey, and James Parks Caldwell.
The fundamental purpose of this fraternity is to promote the concepts of Friendship, Justice and Learning within its membership.
As of 2006, Sigma Chi Fraternity consists of 213,535 living brothers in 218 chapters at colleges and universities throughout the United States and Canada, and 145 alumni groups and alumni brothers around the world. Every two years, delegates from all undergraduate chapters and alumni chapters meet for the Grand Chapter - in which Grand Officers, the International Sweetheart of Sigma Chi, and the International Balfour Award winner are elected, and revisions to the General Fraternity's Governing Laws and Ritual are proposed and debated.
Most recently Sigma Chi was honored by the United States Congress on its 150th anniversary on June 13th, 2005, becoming the only Greek letter society so honored.