Sigma Nu

The Coat of Arms of Sigma Nu

Sigma Nu, the honor fraternity, was founded in 1869 at Virginia Military Institute. For more than 110 years, the Delta Theta chapter at Knox has been a prominent leader in academics, sports and community service. Sigma Nu’s mission continues today to develop ethical and honorable leaders of society through the development of the minds, hearts and characters of its members.

History in Galesburg

The oldest chapter of a fraternity on the Knox College campus, Sigma Nu was originally founded as Delta Theta, a local fraternity at nearby Lombard College in 1861. In 1891, Delta Theta became affiliated with the national Sigma Nu Fraternity. The Chapter was allowed to keep Delta Theta as its chapter designation, even though it is out of sequence with the other national chapters. It is only one of two Sigma Nu chapters allowed to do this.

Reputation

Sigma Nu, as any of its members will tell you, does not fit the traditional Fraternity stereotype of jocks whose primary focus is getting people drunk. On the contrary, if you've ever been to Sigma Nu, you'll know that you're far more likely to find the brothers playing Wii on their 46 inch TV than doing keg stands or power hours.

Sigma Nu is known as the geekiest fraternity on campus. But, rather than be dismayed at their reputation, Sigma Nus seem to revel in it, having recently adopted the slogan "Sigma Nu: We take the 'R' out of 'Greek'".

Many Sigma Nus came to Knox decidedly anti-Greek and never considered joining any fraternity other than Snu. This has led to a diverse and very open minded group of guys in the house. And while Sigma Nu doesn't fit the traditional frat stereotypes, it seems to get a new stereotype of its own every five years or so.

• Since their 2000-01 pledge class, Sigma Nu has largely been known as the LARPER frat, or "gamer" frat. At this point, that latter is probably more accurate, as very few brothers take part in the Vampire LARP anymore, but lots of brother play way too many video games. There is also a large contingent of tree-hugging hippie types in the house right now. Oddly enough, they get the best grades in the house...

• Prior to 2000-01, Sigma Nu was known as the international fraternity for many years. At one point, more than half of the actives were international students. Geeky international students.

• Before this Sigma Nu was the gay frat, or as it was alternatively called, the "pink" frat. This reputation stuck around long after it was warranted, especially among the other fraternities because of rampant homophobia in the Greek System.

• Long, long before that, Sigma Nu was populated by Veterans returning from World War II. They were a bit of an old fashioned bunch, and didn't really approve of all those gays and foreigners that eventually took over their fraternity, but it seems like they eventually got over it.

Sigma Nu Delta Theta also has a reputation of academic excellence (what else would you expect from a bunch of geeks?), and has consistently had one of the two highest Chapter grade point averages among fraternities at Knox.

The constituent members of Sigma Nu tend not to drink as often as members of TKE, and are less frequently varsity athletes than members of Beta. In fact, right now they only have one varsity athelete, and he's a golfer, so that might not even count.

Some people describe Sigma Nu as a cross between the Deltas from the movie Animal House and the Lambdas of the movie Revenge of the Nerds due to their odd mixture of huge geeks and hardcore partiers.

Chapter House

The Sigma Nu chapter house is located at 556 S. West Street across from the Quad loading dock. It is the smallest chapter house of any fraternity at Knox by square footage, and shares the lowest housing capacity with Sigma Chi.

(see also: Sigma Old)

Parties

While Sigma Nu is an important part of members' social lives, Sigma Nus tend not to rely as much on the fraternity for their social lives as other fraternities members seem to. As a result, there are typically fewer "unofficial" parties at Sigma Nu. On weekends when there is not a registered party, Sigma Nu's will often be seen at other parties around campus, including those of other fraternities.

It never made much sense to Sigma Nus why they would want a bunch of people they don't know to come over to their house just for free beer. As a result, Snu parties are typically smaller, more personal affairs than those of other fraternities, and consist mainly of closer friends of the house.

There is often dancing, but the dance floor is seldom packed for the entire party. Exceptions occur--the 80s dance party of 2005-06 and the James Bond Party on April 20, 2007 are prime examples of this.

Parties throughout the year include "Sunrise" and "Sunset" at the beginning and end of the year (formerly "Tequila Sunrise" and "-Sunset"), "Sigma Boo", a Halloween party, "Party With a Heart On", a Valentines' party, and many others.

Since Sigma Nu parties are more than just an excuse to get hammered, booty dance, and get laid, women generally feel secure that they will not be sexually harassed at a Snu party.

Tunak

At some point, often multiple points, during a Snu party, all of the members will come to the dance floor to do a ridiculous dance to the equally ridiculous song, Tunak Tunak Tun, by Daler Mehndi. Though brother Akshat Agaarwal once explained the meaning of the words of Tunak, Akshat usually didn't make much sense, so the song's meaning remains a mystery. On Flunk Day Sigma Nus do the Tunak dance in the middle of West Street in front of their house.

Inter-fraternity Beef

Sigma Nu doesn't have any beef or rivalry with any of the other fraternities. This is mainly due to the fact that Snus are generally a pretty innocuous group of nice guys that don't start shit.

Athletics

As noted above, Sigma Nus are rarely varsity atheletes. Currently, they have a varsity golfer and a former varsity soccer player. They do, however, participate in Intramural Dodge Ball. They just make sure they take precautions to make them as numb to the sting of the ball as possible before hand.

Outside Resources

• The Official Website of the Delta Theta (Knox) Chapter of Sigma Nu
• The Official Website of the Sigma Nu Fraternity