Our Chapter History

The long tradition of Delta Eta chapter began many years ago by a daring group of young men who sparked a series of events, the results of which would span a century and affect the lives of thousands. It was then, in the early years of the University of Nebraska, that our chapter was forged.

On June 16, 1909, the High Council of Sigma Nu Fraternity, meeting at Richmond, Kentucky, granted its 77th charter to the Delta Eta Chapter at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln.  Eleven founding members became the first class of Delta Eta Sigma Nu:

• Lois Christian Hummel, ΔH 1
• Orville Hugh Pierce, ΔH 2
• Vern Wallace Gittings, ΔH 3
• John Cicero Watson, ΔH 4
• Arthur Allan Dobson, ΔH 5
• Hugh Henderson Drake, ΔH 6
• Roy Almond Brownell, ΔH 7
• Frederick Augustus Crites, ΔH 8
• Robert Daniel Hawley, ΔH 9
• Vincent Bartling Elseffer, ΔH 10
• Earl Cleveland McKee, ΔH 11

Of course the men of Delta Eta make up the true history of the fraternity.   Currently, Delta Eta chapter has initiated 1858 men into the fraternity since its founding. 

Over the years, the men of Delta Eta chapter garnered special recognitions.  Sigma Nu National Fraternity bestows upon its finest chapters the high distinction of the Rock Chapter Award.  The award is presented at Grand Chapter gatherings which convene every two years.  It is meant to honor collegiate chapters that have achieved excellence in all areas of chapter operations. To be granted the award, a chapter should be expected to attain the ideals, or nearly perfect state on a broad range of areas of fraternity operations. To give the actual award special distinction, walnut from the hills surrounding V.M.I. is used, implanted with a piece of the original Rock upon which the Legion of Honor was founded.  Delta Eta Chapter earned this award in 1986, 2002, 2004, and 2006.

Delta Eta has yet to make the best part of its history.  The future holds great promise for our fraternity and for the gentlemen who walk its halls.  Major renovation efforts will completely modernize the home and create a truly safe haven for our brothers.  But we must always look to our past to build our future.

For more information about the history of our chapter, please visit our Alumni Association.

Sigma Nu's National History

Sigma Nu's history began in the period following the American Civil War, when a Confederate veteran from Mississippi enrolled at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington Virginia. That cadet was James Frank Hopkins, and it is to him and two of his classmates that Sigma Nu owes its existence. When Hopkins enrolled at VMI, the South was in a state of turmoil, only beginning to recover from its devastating military defeat. VMI was recognized for its civil engineering program at a time when the South needed engineers to repair its bridges, railroads and general infrastructure. At the Institute, cadets suffered from the aftermath of war and its disruption of 19th Century home life. No less insufferable was the institutional system of physical harassment imposed on lower classmen by their own upper classmen.

Hopkins had experienced military subservience during the war, and was willing to tolerate a reasonable amount of constraint intended to induce discipline. However, Hopkins was unwilling to accept any amount of hazing, as then tolerated at VMI, in the name of his Christian faith. "Not one ounce of hazing" was he willing to suffer and he was doggedly adamant to eliminate it.

Two classmates and close friends who were also unhappy with the hazing situation soon joined Hopkins. They were Greenfield Quarles, from Arkansas, a Kentuckian by birth, and James McIlvaine Riley from St. Louis, Missouri. These three men began a movement to completely abolish the hazing system at VMI. Their efforts climaxed on a moonlit October night in 1868, presumably following Bible study at the superintendent's home, when the three met at a limestone outcropping on the edge of the VMI parade ground. Hopkins, Quarles and Riley clasped hands on the Bible and made a solemn pledge to form a new brotherhood.

The vows taken by these three Founders bound them together to oppose hazing at VMI and encouraged the application of the Principle of Honor in all their relationships. That the founders should adopt Honor as a guiding principle was a natural move since a rigid code of Honor was already an established tradition of the VMI Corps of Cadets. The Honor system at VMI required each cadet to conform to the duty imposed by his conscience that each act be governed by a high sense of honor.