History of the Missouri Mu Chapter of SigEp.

During the 1979-1980 academic year, Scott Zajac organized an interest group with the intent of establishing a new men's fraternity at Northeast Missouri State University. Zajac's group was the third such organization on campus. Interest groups affiliated with Phi Delta Theta and with Sigma Alpha Epsilon were already courting the Interfraternity Council, which that year would invite only one National Interfraternity Conference affiliate to establish a colony at NMSU. Zajac's interest group, which found support from Sigma Phi Epsilon, presented the most persuasive proposal, and the NMSU Sigma Epsilon colony was established. By the middle of the Spring 1981 semester, the colony had met or exceeded all of the requirements for chartering. On March 28, 1981, a delegation from Zollinger House installed the Missouri Mu chapter of Sigma Phi Epsilon.

The chapter continued to grow throughout the 1980s. Local radio personality Charles Porter was initiated as an honorary member, and he allowed the chapter to register him each year with Zollinger House as the Chapter Counselor. Various members of the NMSU faculty served as advisors, including Dobson Hall Director David Lascu, Business Instructor Ross Fink, and Professor of Biology Gary Sells. Professor Sells' term as faculty advisor was collateral with the three years his son, Jim, was an active in the chapter. No clear record exists of Missouri Mu's faculty advisors from 1987-1991.
Nevertheless, the chapter continued to have strong leadership from a series of creative and aggressive presidents who were committed to the development of Sigma Phi Epsilon at NMSU. Mike Jessen served for two years in the top office, while Cory Juma held the IFC presidency and David Galloway served as Assistant IFC Advisor. Former chapter president Michael Taylor was selected to serve the national fraternity as a Regional Director.

The initial eclectic mix of St. Louis men and men from outstate Missouri (primarily northeast Missouri) soon gave way to a predominantly St. Louis membership, most of whom had attended private Catholic boys’ prep schools and played soccer. By the 10th Chartering Anniversary in March 1991, Missouri Mu had more than 100 members; a strong and distinctive presence on campus; a cultural identity emerging from the diverse, multi-ethnic, urban Catholic culture of St. Louis; a strong sense of brotherhood; and both a self-image and a public image predicated on athletic excellence, fashionable style, and manly conduct.

The annual Chartering Anniversary Weekend in March is called Meltdown and serves as Missouri Mu's spring alumni reunion event. At the 10th Chartering Anniversary Weekend (Meltdown X) in March 1991, things went terribly wrong. The university and the national fraternity each had a strong "no kegs" policy with which Missouri Mu had complied. But during Meltdown X, from 12:00 PM on Friday until 12:00 PM on Sunday, the undergraduates and alumni accumulated a total of 43 empty kegs on the north lawn of the SigEp house, visible for all to see from Florence Avenue and Ryle Hall. Several undergraduates with university meal plans went to the Ryle Hall dining room for dinner, along with some alumni members. There, they managed to start a food fight; the dining room manager later testified that the SigEps tried to "stone" him to death with Tater Tots.

Some women from the Alpha Sigma Tau teachers college sorority at Western Illinois University were on campus that weekend to help AST determine if it wanted to colonize at NMSU. These women found their way to the big Meltdown party on Saturday night, whereupon they were called ugly and had beer spit on them by SigEp alumni and undergraduates. In addition, some of the undergraduate members obtained an enormous water-balloon launcher and began shooting water balloons at dangerous velocities at vehicles driving on Florence Avenue, at Ryle Hall, at cars in the university parking lot across the street, and eventually straight through the bathroom window of the fifth-floor apartment of a professor's apartment in Ryle Hall.

The Greek Judicial Board imposed sanctions including university charter suspension for the remainder of the Spring 1991 semester, social probation for the entire 1991-1992 school year [no social events with other fraternities and sororities], and a ban from participation in the intramural competitions during 1991-1992. When the Dean of Students was given the verdict for her signature, she noticed that the investigation revealed that Sigma Phi Epsilon had no record of a faculty advisor for about five years. She then added to the punishments the assignment of the IFC Advisor (fraternity dean) as the SigEp advisor for the terms of suspension and probation. This was Dr. Roger Festa, who found the SigEps to be a group of outstanding young men that had erred because of a lack of internal advisement and continuity. Dr. Festa resigned as fraternity dean at the end of 1991 and returned full-time to his professorship in chemistry. He stayed at Sigma Phi Epsilon as the faculty advisor (university sponsor) and the Chapter Counselor, and remains in these roles today.

During the past 23 years, Sigma Phi Epsilon has been regarded throughout the university as one of the strongest student organizations and one of the four premier fraternities on campus. Except for the1991-1992 suspension from IMs, Sigma Phi Epsilon has won the interfraternity intramural All Sports Trophy every year from 1986-1999. Missouri Mu has received the Outstanding New Men's Formation Program Award from the IFC every year since 1992, and five SigEps have received the Boucher Award for Outstanding Fraternity Man of the Year. The chapter has received three Buchanan Cups (1995, 1997, 2001) and has placed three men as Regional Directors during the 1990s. Dr. Festa was initiated as an Honorary Member in the Renaissance of Brotherhood program on September 27, 1997, and he has joined the ranks of "famous" SigEp alumni when he served as the national president of the American Institute of Chemists (the second SigEp to hold this prestigious leadership position in American chemistry).

Missouri Mu fell into financial difficulty during 1998-1999. VP Finance Chris O'Neal took charge and, under his leadership as chapter president, Sigma Phi Epsilon had a local surplus account ready to be invested for the future of the chapter. The prestigious St. Louis architectural firm, Powers Bowersox, has designed an expanded and renovated house for Missouri Mu, and fund raising for the new house is now under way among the chapter’s 600+ alumni. Sigma Phi Epsilon is an integral part of the diversity of Truman State University and, as Dr. Festa wrote in 1991, our great heart upon the hill casts the scarlet glow of the sacred across our secular campus.