Sigma Alpha Epsilon was founded at the University of Alabama on March 9, 1856 by eight students who wished to form an organization built on brotherhood. As the size of the brotherhood grew, so did its boundaries. With the start of the Civil War in 1861, most brothers answered the call to arms. At the end of that tragic war, only one Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapter survived. But the strength and power
of SAE could not be denied and soon, more chapters were formed. Sigma Alpha Epsilon soon expanded from the South into the North and the West, becoming the first southern fraternity to do so. With this expansion, the values of the True Gentleman, that the fraternity was molded after, found a home on other campuses. As early as 1927, Sigma Alpha Epsilon established its 125th chapter, but the Depression held its grip on the country. Even with the economic woes of the time, Sigma Alpha Epsilon managed to construct the college fraternity's national headquarters. It was built in Evanston, Illinois, just north of Chicago, and was named the Levere Memorial Temple. The Temple remains the headquarters of Sigma Alpha Epsilon. In 1935, Sigma Alpha Epsilon once again held true to its reputation as the leading innovator of the fraternity system by developing an annual leadership school. The school brings together SAE brothers from across the nation for a week long school that teaches leadership skills. It also allows brothers to find out what other chapters are doing in such areas as pledge programming, rush, social programming, scholarship and more. It now has over 280,000 graduates and nearly every other fraternity has copied the concept.
