History of SAE

Sigma Alpha Epsilon was founded on March 9, 1856, at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Its founders were Noble Leslie DeVotie, Nathan Elams Cockrell, John Barratt Rudulph, John Webb Kerr, Samuel Marion Dennis, Wade Hampton Foster, Abner Edwin Patton, and Thomas Chappell Cook. 

SAE is North America's largest social fraternity with more than 350,000 initiated members and approximately 260,000 living alumni. There are 220 total chapters and approximately 12,500 undergraduates with an average chapter size of 60 men. 

Fraternal symbols include the lion, the phoenix, Minerva, and the fleur-de-lis. 

SAE was the first fraternity to establish a national headquarters (1929), a national Leadership School (1935), a national Men's Health Issues Committee (1980), and a career-development program entitled the Leading Edge (1990). Currently, the Fraternity offers a comprehensive member-education program called Phoenix Member Education Program. The Fraternity communicates through The Record magazine, a quarterly publication that has been published continuously since 1880. 

We are fortunate to have some of the most notable alumni in the world.  An incomplete list can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Sigma_Alpha_Epsilon_members

The Levere Memorial Temple stands as the crown jewel of the Greek letter world.  Opened in 1929 as the first national headquarters, the historic structure still preserves the past and works for SAE's future. It houses the offices of the SAE Fraternity Service Center composed of the three administrative and management organizations of Sigma Alpha Epsilon: the Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity, the Sigma Alpha Epsilon Foundation, and the Sigma Alpha Epsilon Financial and Housing Corporation. For more than 90 years, the Temple has been admired by those who have worked within its walls, toured its majestic rooms, and even lived under its roof. It has been lovingly perfected, preserved, and protected, standing today as testament to the vision of those who dreamed, so many years ago, of building a national shrine to SAE.

It is located at 1856 Sheridan Road in Evanston, Illinois and sits on the shores of Lake Michigan just across from Northwestern University.