Sigma Phi Epsilon
May 10th, 2019
VIRTUE. DILIGENCE. BROTHERLY LOVE.
2019 Spring Semester Overview
A new year arrived in early January, but the brothers of Sigma Phi Epsilon at Arkansas Tech continued onward in our tradition of excellence. Since the beginning of this semester, our brothers have been excelling in the classroom and all across campus. Two of our brothers began serving terms as Interfraternity Vice Presidents on the IFC executive board, they are in charge of recruitment and standards for all of fraternity life at Arkansas Tech. Our brothers accumulated well over 1,000 service hours between all of us and have been making a large impact on our community. All of our executive board began the year by taking a trip to Dallas, Texas for an unforgettable experience at the Carlson Leadership Academy. On this trip we learned countless methods of expanding our reach across campus, and internally to every member of our chapter and alumni. We developed one of our greatest tools for communication and alumni outreach with this brand new, professional website that allows us more access to you than ever before.
In February our chapter gained 5 awesome new members as part of our Spring 2019 rush class and these men have truly shown to us that they belong in our chapter and are 100% “SigEp” through and through. Dalton Domrase from Sheridan, Collins Papasan from Russellville, Chandler Webb from Russellville, Jacob Holloway from Sheridan, and Jeremy Kendall from Greenbrier all accepted bids and are welcoming the chance to better themselves as men of society and diligence.
We have stayed busy this semester hosting several events across campus and planning awesome functions. In February of this year, we hosted an event to raise money for our philanthropies that was a hit across campus. “Smooch A Pooch” helped us raise nearly $300 by sitting at the Bell Tower, blasting music and playing with our dogs that some of our brothers let us borrow for a few hours. In March our brothers helped donate over 500 books towards the children in the River Valley and we spent a day at the Boys and Girls Club in Dardanelle playing with the kids and reading to them. In April, SigEp was paired with Phi Mu in the annual Greek Week were we placed 1st for the second year in a row in the Greek Games as well as placing 3rd in the Greek Dance Battle. We finished the week donating nearly 10,000 individual food items and finishing Greek Week in a commendable 2nd place. Our brothers won several awards at the Greek Excellence Banquet to top off the week. Our chapter also took home the Arkansas Tech Fraternity and Sorority Life award for Programming in 2018; recognizing our commitment and hard work towards involving our campus and community. Brother Jahaziel Martinez was given an award for his community service in IFC along with brother Colton Little, who also received distinguished honors as a Top 5 Fraternity Man Of The Year. President Mitchell Williams won the award for Greek Man of the Year as well as being distinguished on the Nationally Recognized list of college elite, Who’s Who list for Arkansas Tech. Our socials this semester were Ski Lodge themed and 90’s themed and we had a blast at them not only because of the camaraderie but how they helped us grow our student relations outside of our brotherhood. We hosted our first annual Crawfish Boil with the help of Phi Mu and put out a feast on the Caraway Lawn that was open to the public and was greatly received by the community, students, and administration at Arkansas Tech. Recreationally, our brothers have competed and placed in numerous sporting activities and in intramural sports. Our dodgeball team captured 3rd place in the annual Zeta Dodgeball Tournament and we also placed 3rd in the IFC-CPC Basketball Tournament. Currently, our two intramural softball teams are the best in the league and will likely play each other for the championship. Domination in all aspects of college life. We celebrated 42 illustrious years of greatness at Arkansas Tech during our formal and founder’s day dinner, where we recognized current and former members on their achievements in front of our whole chapter and their beautiful dates.
Finishing off these last few weeks our spring class will be gaining their big brothers this weekend April 26th, and we are going to enjoy a nice weekend out on the lake that following Saturday, one last fling before we get to studying and finish up with school. Our brothers are excited to be home and free of school for the summer. We have worked hard to maintain our spot as not only the best fraternity on this campus but the best organization as well.
Looking Forward to Next Year
Looking forward to next fall our main goal is still to grow the number of members we have active in the chapter. While we love every brother still in, some are leaving to graduate and some for the next season of their lives and we need to continue to have more brothers to help out with manpower. However, we still have aspirations to focus on making our bond and our relationships even closer and growing as men together. We are looking to improve our GPA and to have our members seek leadership positions in other influential organizations across Tech’s campus, we have established a chapter goal of earning a 3.2 cumulative GPA for our chapter from here forward. With brothers in nearly every corner of the state, and in a few surrounding ones we have developed a plan for recruitment during the summer with our website, social media and through events that will allow us to grow and expand to new heights our chapter has never seen before. We will continue to do what is expected of us and more, by those who came before us and made us the best of the best on this campus. Our job is to grow as men, as students, and as people together, through our cardinal principles of virtue, diligence and brotherly love.
“This fraternity will be different” – Carter Ashton Jenkins, Founding Father 1901.
We were designed to be different, set apart and better than any other organization and because of the path, the guides and standards you set when you wore our letters, that is what we still are today.
In news that involves you, the alumni, our brothers will be hosting our second golf tournament later this summer at the beginning of the fall semester in August. The tournament will be held at Lion’s Den Golf Course on August 24th. The price is $50 a person including the prize of a pack of SigEp golf balls. Tee Times begin at 9:00 and we will follow a 2 man scramble.
With the creation of this website please feel free to explore and update your information on the links listed in the tabs on the homepage. This is a great way for us to get in touch with you and keep you updated as well as for you to see what we are up to. There are links for referring brothers if you have relative or student in mind that will be attending ATU and you perceive them as fit and willing to join our ranks please list them there! We have a new system for donations and funding for scholarships that will go towards our chapter and individual brothers that is easy to access, safe and professional on the tabs on our homepage. Please update your information so we can grow our alumni database and keep you involved!
Please look forward to these newsletter updates every few months. Thank you for your continued support!
Balanced Man Scholarship
This next semester our fraternity will be starting a scholarship fund to give to a group of 5 selected students who represent all of the aspects of what our chapter stands for to help their financial burden and alleviate some stress from tuition rates. Our goal is to secure $5,000 to divide amongst the students that we have selected through a rigorous application process. The list of students will be composed of one current brother, two new members, one female sorority member and one incoming freshman student.
The recipients of these scholarships will be awarded at a banquet in the next fall semester. Our fundraising efforts this semester have gained us a little over $1,000 towards our goal. With your help, we can secure more than enough money to give towards deserving members of our community. Donations can be made directly through our website on the page “Support Our Chapter” and then the link labeled “Donate.” On this link, you can generously donate to our funds that not only include our local scholarships, but our chapter as a whole and SigEp sponsored scholarships for our brothers to attend their leadership events.’
Contact Our Executive Board
Mitchell Williams – President: mwilliams97@atu.edu
Jahaziel Martinez – Vice President of Programming: jmartinez14@atu.edu
Nathan Scarbrough – Vice President of Finance: jscarbrough1@atu.edu
Autry Westfall – Chaplain: awestfall@atu.edu
Aaron Johnson – Vice President of Recruitment: ajohnson101@atu.edu
Jaedon Mitchell – Vice President of Member Development: jmitchell43@atu.edu
Travis Tolbert – Vice President of Risk Management: ttolbert2@atu.edu
Colton Little – Vice President of Communications: clittle7@atu.edu