Sat on this one a few days, but the Vanderbilt Hustler broke it, so it's fair game:

Sig Ep wins bid for new chapter

by Megan Cervanec
January 14, 2005

Representatives from three national fraternities, Delta Tau Delta, Phi Gamma Delta and Sigma Phi Epsilon, were invited to give their 'sales pitches' for bringing a chapter to Vanderbilt campus over the course of December 7-9.

Sigma Phi Epsilon, frequently called SigEp, was chosen from the three to join the Vanderbilt Greek community.

The fraternities spoke in front of a group of interested students, the expansion committee and Greek advisors Clayton Arrington and Kristen Torrey.

All students were then given evaluations to fill out and the scores were averaged for every area.

"SigEp offered support, leadership programming and other sorts of things that made them stand out," Torry said.

What set them apart from the rest was their four-year member development program, called the Balanced Man Program, which "focuses on different stages throughout the entire time that the member is in college," Torry said.

For example a junior or senior member of SigEp would be required to visit the Career Center, have his resume reviewed, and connect with alumni to aid him in his post-graduate planning. Torry believed that they were chosen because "they are doing something different."

"I have every faith that this group will be successful without a facility," Torry said, referring to the fact that SigEp will not have a fraternity house on campus.

The fraternity will be arriving to campus in mid-February, and students that are interested in joining are advised to contact the Office of Greek Life.

For more information, you can visit Sigma Phi Epsilon's Web site at www.sigep.org.

News was also picked up by our friends over at Sanguine et Purpure. I'm really excited to hear this, given that Vanderbilt already has a high caliber reputation for academics and leadership. Athletics, well, we'll overlook that on the varsity level. As for gentlemen, I have full confidence that the expansion team will sort the SigEp's from the frat boys.

I have a feeling this one will get off the ground very, very fast.