Founding of Sigma Chi
Sigma Chi was founded by seven college men at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, on June 28th, 1855. The founding of Sigma Chi was the outgrowth of the seven founders’ desire to perpetuate the ideals of true friendship, equal justice and the fulfillment of learning.
These seven men believed that friendship among members sharing a common belief in these ideals and possessing different temperaments, talents and convictions was superior to friendship among members having like character. They further believed that genuine friendship could be maintained without surrendering the principle of individuality or sacrificing one’s personal judgment.
Six of the seven founders were members of an existing fraternity. They were motivated to start a new fraternal order by the injustice and lack of respect for their opinions which resulted from a disagreement within the chapter of which they were members. The chapter consisted of twelve members and it was evenly divided on an issue of principle. Six of the members, led by the president of the chapter, supported one of the members for a position in a campus literary society. The dissenting six, eventual founders of Sigma Chi, refused to vote for the brother because they believed he lacked poetic abilities.
As a matter of principle, the founders of Sigma Chi refused to weigh their fraternal association with an individual more heavily than an assessment of his abilities in making an important decision. Both sides refused to budge, setting the stage for several disagreements in the ensuing months.
In February 1855, the president of the chapter and an alumnus of the fraternity met with the six dissenting members in a final attempt to resolve the situation. The president and the alumnus subsequently determined that justice would best be served with the formal expulsion of two of the dissenting members. They also determined that the other four should be chastised but could remain in the chapter. At that point the six dissenting members disaffiliated from the chapter and joined together with one other student to found the Sigma Chi Fraternity.