Sigma Mu Sigma

Sigma Mu Sigma
ΣΜΣ
Founded	March 25, 1921; 103 years ago (1921-03-25); reestablished 1984 Trine University (Tri-State)
Type	Service
Affiliation	Independent
Former affiliation	NIC
Status	Defunct
Defunct date	2020
Scope	National
Colors	Azure and   Gold
Symbol	Lamp, All-Seeing Eye, open book, clasped hands
Flower	Egyptian lotus[1]
Chapters	0
Members	6,700 lifetime
Merged with	Tau Kappa Epsilon (1935) Sigma Alpha Chi (1952)
Headquarters	United States

Sigma Mu Sigma (ΣΜΣ) is a former American college fraternity founded in 1921 at Tri-State University. Sigma Mu Sigma was historically an all-male social fraternity open originally to Master Masons, and later open to all undergraduate male students.^[2] As a national fraternity, Sigma Mu Sigma dissolved in 1935 when it was absorbed by Tau Kappa Epsilon.^[2] Sigma Mu Sigma was later revived, developed another dozen chapters, and several of these were absorbed by Kappa Sig, Acacia and others. A few remaining chapters of Sigma Mu Sigma transformed into a co-ed service fraternity in 1984 but went defunct around 2020.

In 1921, Sigma Mu Sigma was founded by three Knights Templar students at Tri-State College in Angola, Indiana. The three founders were Claude Brown, Charles Knapp, and Harold Van Vranken.^[3] Sigma Mu Sigma was founded as a fraternity exclusively for Master Masons with a zeal for the promotion of the fraternity's cardinal principles of sincerity, morality, and scholarship. Its founding date was Good Friday, March 25, 1921.^[3]

At the time of the fraternity's founding, Tri-State College had a ban on secret societies; however, several sub-rosa organizations were known to exist on campus. The three founders of the fraternity selected nine other students who were also Master Masons and among the top students at the college. Sigma Mu Sigma announced its formation to administrators and professors of the college. Faced with the possibility of expelling twelve of the top students at Tri-State, the college moved to end its ban on fraternities.

The fraternity's original intent was to limit membership to Master Masons and to maintain the scholarship standards of Phi Beta Kappa. This was soon found to be impracticable and the Phi Beta Kappa standard was soon dropped. However, the fraternity did require a high scholarship record of its pledges.^[1]

Sigma Mu Sigma became a junior member of the North-American Interfraternity Conference (NIC) in 1928.^[1] In 1929, the fraternity's membership requirements were changed to allow both Masons and sons of Masons.^[1]

In the early 1930s, the United States was in the midst of the Great Depression, resulting in college enrollment and fraternity membership dropping significantly. The effect was especially felt on Sigma Mu Sigma because of the added constraints of its Masonic membership requirement. In the fall of 1934, Sigma Mu Sigma national decided to dissolve itself and allow its chapters to be absorbed by Tau Kappa Epsilon. Sigma Mu Sigma had nine chapters at the time of the decision.

The merger was effected in March 1935 with the Epsilon chapter at George Washington University becoming the Alpha-Pi chapter of Tau Kappa Epsilon. Sigma Mu Sigma's Zeta chapter at Purdue University and the Eta chapter at the University of Illinois merged with existing Tau Kappa Epsilon chapters at their respective campuses. While these three chapters merged, the remaining chapters did not participate: Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Theta chapters dissolved.^[4] Alpha and Iota chapters chose to remain as independent, local Sigma Mu Sigma chapters without a national organization.

In 1936, Alpha chapter affiliated with Alpha Lambda Tau, signaling that for some reason, the 1935 merger with Tau Kappa Epsilon had been unworkable. Small nationals were merging or dissolving across the country during this difficult time, however, for the Tri-State chapter, the reason may have been that they were unwelcome. At this juncture, chapters at some schools were incompatible with the larger nationals because the NIC (as well as the NPC) required that Full member fraternities may only allow chapters at accredited institutions. Sigma Mu Sigma had been a junior member; Tau Kappa Epsilon was a full member. Hence, as Tri-State was not yet accredited, the chapter may have realized or been advised it was ineligible for a charter with Tau Kappa Epsilon. This may have been the reason it remained local, and then joined the smaller national fraternity of Alpha Lambda Tau, also a junior NIC member.^[5][3] The Iota chapter lingered for a few years, and was inactive by 1940.

Clyde E. Shaw, a Sigma Mu Sigma brother and faculty member of the Tri-State chapter, revived the fraternity in 1940, four years after his original chapter had joined Alpha Lambda Tau as its Psi chapter.^[2] (To complete the story on the original chapter, Alpha Lambda Tau was a small national fraternity that in 1947 would later itself merge into Tau Kappa Epsilon as a coincidental, second national merger, that time bringing the Tri-State chapter along with it briefly; but within a year the Tri-State group, now called Beta-Epsilon chapter of Tau Kappa Epsilon was forced to return its newly-won charter because of the accreditation problem. The resilient Tri-State group then joined Kappa Sigma Kappa, and was granted a charter from Kappa Sigma just after Tri-State earned accreditation. The chapter survives to the present day.)

Meanwhile, while Shaw's original chapter was proceeding through these several affiliations, his newly-re-established Alpha chapter of Sigma Mu Sigma was reborn through his efforts and able to successfully navigate the manpower drain of World War II, stabilizing into a thriving chapter as the only existent active group of his re-established fraternity. This chapter, now operating as a local fraternity with the name Sigma Mu Sigma, changed its membership requirements to allow non-Masons to join. Alpha chapter was the only active Sigma Mu Sigma chapter from 1940 to 1952.

In August 1952, the Alpha chapter merged with Sigma Alpha Chi, another Masonic fraternity that had been originally known as Square and Compass. Two years later, on August 3, 1952, Square and Compass and Sigma Mu Sigma voted to merge; the merged organization became known officially as Sigma Mu Sigma–Square and Compass.^[3][2] The merger linked Sigma Mu Sigma with four chapters from Sigma Alpha Chi and led to another period of moderate growth.^[3] The other Square and Compass chapters dissipated.^[4]

The merger with Sigma Alpha Chi put the fraternity on more solid footing during the 1950s and into the 1960s. This led to the establishment of eight additional chapters. Sigma Mu Sigma marketed itself as a service fraternity from this point, allowing participation by men already active in another social fraternity.^[6] However, anti-establishment attitudes on college campuses of the late 1960s began to put pressure on most college fraternities.

This was especially true for Sigma Mu Sigma, which had long been linked with socially conservative ideals and the Freemasons. As Baird's Manual explained, "The purpose of the fraternity is to foster the indoctrination of the college men of America with the traditions of their American heritage" ^[1] By the early 1970s, this message wasn't as marketable as hoped. At this juncture, many of its chapters began to close or move to other nationals. The Alpha chapter at Tri-State joined Acacia, the largest of the Masonic-influenced fraternities. The Lambda chapter at Elon College joined Kappa Sigma. Other chapters would close, and the Sigma chapter was removed from campus by the administration of Lynchburg College.

Under the pressure of these changes, the fraternity took on a new direction. When reestablished in 1984 with the assistance of the Tau chapter at Virginia Tech, the Sigma chapter at Lynchburg College became coed.^[7] Sigma Mu Sigma Fraternity remained focused on service, and it allowed both male students to be members as well as female students, known as sisters. The Sigma chapter was the only Sigma Mu Sigma chapter until 1989 when it began working to establish the Chi chapter at the College of William and Mary. Chi chapter was chartered in November 1990.^[8] Campus administration forced the Sigma chapter to become an all-male chapter in 1992.^[7] By 2016, the Sigma chapter had gone inactive.^[2]

The fraternity's colors were azure and gold. Its flower was the Egyptian lotus. Its symbols were the lamp, the all seeing eye, an open book, and clasped hands.

Following are the historic chapters of Sigma Mu Sigma.^[1][4] The original fraternity roll included chapters Alpha through Iota. It was re-established by Alpha (Second) which operated as a local under the Sigma Mu Sigma name for twelve years, until the addition of several Sigma Alpha Chi chapters and a second period of moderate growth that lasted until the national was dissipated in the mid-1960s, leaving several surviving locals. A third iteration of the fraternity with a co-ed model was attempted by the surviving Sigma chapter, now defunct.^[1]

• List of social fraternities