The Old Capitol building patiently waits for the return of the men of SAE in 2016.
Alumni Association preparing to go through process of bringing SAE back to Iowa campus
When Iowa Beta returns to campus in 2016, it won't come back as full active chapter. It will go through a process starting first as a Phoenix Colony and the Iowa Beta Alumni Association will be there to oversee it.
A Phoenix Colony is the status Sigma Alpha Epsilon national grants to historic chapters who are reviving their charter and it is a common practice. It means Iowa Beta, like the Phoenix, is rising again and will return to full active chapter status after a number of milestones and goals have been achieved. This process is designed to ensure long-term success.
A Phoenix Colony differs from a brand new start-up colony in that it takes advantage of capitalizing on existing alumni relationships and support reducing the steps – and often the time – required to achieve full active status.
“I am confident that Iowa Beta will return to campus stronger than it has been in years. It will have the full support of the SAE Fraternity Service Center staff and strong alumni engagement,” said Deran Abernathy (TXCH’04) , Associate Executive Director of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity.“We look forward to Iowa Beta regaining its rightful place as one of the finest SAE chapters in our realm.”
SAE’s goal is to create the strongest possible chapter at Iowa and give undergraduates the best experience in a sustainable way. Over the years, it has been proven that the colony status is the best way to demonstrate that a chapter will be strong for many years to come and that the improvements made are lasting.
What is the process to get started as a Phoenix Colony?
1. Authorization to begin the colony process by SAE’s Extension Advisory Committee
The University of Iowa and Iowa Beta already are on this committee’s list. The approval process will begin approximately one year out from the return (target to begin is 2015). Upon approval, the Fraternity Service Center staff will work heavily with alumni and the university to build an initial Alumni Advisory Board to support the chartering process and then build an official “interest group” of undergraduate students.
This group of alumni will work to build a sustaining network of people to advise the Chapter in several key areas for years to come (eg: New Member Education, Chapter Operations, Scholarship, Philanthropy, Ritual, etc.).
Recruited students can begin working with the SAE Fraternity Service Center on the requirements to colonize. At this point, the interest group is not allowed to use any branding or insignia of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, including the Greek letters SAE.
2. Membership selection
In order to meet the minimum membership requirement to formally colonize, the interest group’s undergraduate member size should be at least 50 percent of the average fraternity size at Iowa, with a 15-man minimum. Presently, a 2.5 GPA is required for membership into SAE.
3. Colonization
First, the interest group must meet membership selection requirements and then must receive approval by a combination of alumni volunteers and the SAE Fraternity Service Center staff as a Phoenix Colony. When that is accomplished, alumni will conduct a colonization ritual ceremony, which makes the group formally recognized by the Fraternity, and allows the group to officially begin making progress toward re-obtaining its charter.
4. Officer and Member Development
The collegiate men invited to join Sigma Alpha Epsilon will begin working with headquarters staff and alumni to identify its leaders and to begin the new-member education process of no longer than eight weeks.
Building upon best practices from SAE chapters across the country, Fraternity Service Center staff and alumni work with the group to develop all of the necessary programs, policies and training to establish a successful colony and, later, a successful chapter.
5. Follow-Up
Following colonization, the Fraternity Service Center National Coordinator of Extension will visit Iowa at least once a semester but as often as needed by the Iowa Beta Phoenix Colony. The Coordinator of Extension will also be in constant contact with alumni, undergraduate officers and campus officials. Sigma Alpha Epsilon views the establishment of a colony as an investment in the Fraternity and the host campus.
The Fraternity will do everything possible to protect that investment and ensure that Iowa Beta establishes the most successful colony possible.
6. Periodic Evaluation
The colony’s progress will be evaluated on a monthly basis. National staff and the Alumni Advisory Board also will make evaluations during regular follow-up visits and through discussions with other alumni, undergraduate officers and campus officials. These evaluations will determine the progress and strength of the colony.
7. Re-Installation of the Iowa Beta chapter
Sigma Alpha Epsilon’s goal is to re-install the Iowa Beta chapter 12 to 18 months after the colonization, but that time frame is dependent on the overall success and development of the colony. Upon completion of all colony requirements and approval of the colony's re-installation application, SAE staff and alumni members will conduct the Chapter re-installation and the formal Initiation Ceremony of its members.
8. Ongoing Support
After the re-installation of the Iowa Beta chapter, Sigma Alpha Epsilon national will continue to provide support to the chapter through regular staff and alumni visits and other lines of communication at least twice a year and through the Fraternity's numerous conferences, mailings and other resources. Alumni also will continue to advise the group to help ensure that the chapter continues to live up to Sigma Alpha Epsilon’s high standards.
For more information about how you can help, please email: marc.rosenow@iowabetasae.org
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Matt Miller takes in the Coliseum in Rome while paying tribute to his SAE brother Matt Shapiro on his T-shirt. Shapiro was one of Miller's best undergraduate friends.
Miller's career success can be traced to his Iowa Beta roots
A major reason why Matthew D. Miller (IABE ’11) has become such a rising star in the business world early in his career is his well-deserved reputation as a problem solver. That reputation can be traced to his days as an officer of the Iowa Beta chapter.
Miller hails from West Des Moines and now lives in Kansas City, where he is a solutions architect for Cerner Corporation, a leading provider of information technology to health care providers. Miller commutes to cities on the east coast each week where he manages a team of people implementing electronic medical records solutions.
“My job allows me creative freedom to solve new challenges rather than using old formulas to solve the same problems,” he said. “I like problem-solving but I really like the relationship-building that goes along with it. I want to earn my clients' trust so they take my recommendations and roll them out successfully.”
Despite his busy schedule, Miller has become active in the Iowa Beta Alumni Association and has been helping to recruit recent alumni members.
Miller pledged as a sophomore in 2008 and served the chapter in many capacities during his collegiate years, including Scholarship Chair and Eminent Archon. He was initiated into the fraternity on April 6, 2009 and received badge number 289037.
Before he was elected president, Miller expanded the Scholarship Chair position into a larger, more accountable role.
“We had great guys in the chapter but a few of the members were not very serious students and they brought down the grade point averages for the rest,” Miller said.
To rectify this situation, Miller researched academic commonalities and organized men to study together. He gathered information on professors and their instructions to help the brothers become successful in their classes. His efforts were rewarded as the university recognized SAE with the highest increase in chapter GPA among any other fraternity.
Because the house viewed Miller as someone who can take on projects and manage them to success, the members handily elected him EA in 2010. But only a few days later, Miller learned that SAE was in trouble with the university. He was called to a meeting with the dean, the head of Student Life and the head of Fraternity and Sorority Life.
“I felt blind-sided when I was informed by these officials that we had not been living up to what we were supposed to do,” he said. “It was clear that it was time for me and the officers of the house to take charge.”
Miller was informed that the chapter was on probation because of its lack of following up on compliance duties. Among other requirements, the University of Iowa mandates that fraternities provide completed guest list documentation and attendance records to certain types of events. The stipulations of the probationary status included mandatory attendance at education meetings and submitting required risk management documentation on a timely basis.
Iowa was willing to give Miller and the SAEs a chance. Miller told the school officials that he would work with them and he immediately went to the SAE officers and worked through the night to draft a plan of action. Most importantly, Miller was able to get the undergraduates to follow through. Subsequently over time, the chapter was taken off probation. This was a significant accomplishment.
“I took my roles in the house seriously because I wanted to set a positive example for my future successors,” Miller said. “When I was elected president, I had the drive to make sure the fraternity was complying with the school’s requirements.”
One of the areas Miller said could be improved when SAE returns to campus is a better understanding of the meanings of the ritual and stronger education and practice of the songs of the fraternity.
“We would read from the ritual when we activated newer members, but we really did not have a good command of what it was all about,” Miller said. “We read from the book, but no one really knew it well. We did not have all of the ritual equipment we needed. We had robes, but they were very old and did not look nice at all.
“We developed a wish list of items we needed and prioritized it, We were able to purchase a few items but we needed so much more.”
Miller said songs were a great bonding experience for the pledges, but knowledge of the songs was lacking.
“We witnessed other chapters sing the songs with much more skill level and they sang songs we had not even heard of, so I know we could clearly improve in this area. And singing really can bond a chapter a lot closer together,” Miller said. “We tried to organize other activities like paint ball or non-alcoholic events like grilling and playing volleyball to provide fun and have something rewarding to participate in.”
Miller said he has fond memories of going through his SAE experience with his brothers, including Iowa City native Trey Gartner (IABE '12). “Trey was in my pledge class and a finance major,” said Miller. “We had a lot of the same classes. He was real outgoing and was my wing man.”
Another friend of Miller's was Jordan Duesenberg (IABE '12) of West Des Moines.
“My pledge class was large, about 32 to 36 guys and it wasn’t until we both rushed that I found out that my dad and Jordan’s dad worked together,” Miller said. “We had some common ground and that sparked our friendship.”
Miller also had a strong kinship with Sam Shapiro (IABE '11), who hails from Seattle.
“Sam was my age and he was informally rushed,” Miller said. “He was such an outgoing guy and fun to be around. He was friends with everybody. He comes from a good family and he went to a private high school. He was very interested in writing novels and Iowa’s Writers' Workshop really attracted him. He was successful in getting some of his work published while he was in school. He lives in New Orleans and I have gone there to visit him.”
During Miller's tenure in office as EA, the chapter saw improvement in all key metrics. Because of his ability to identify issues and solve problems with practical solutions achieving measurable results, Miller is widely regarded as one of the better EAs of the recent era.
Miller said the importance placed on the True Gentleman during his collegiate years still resonates with him today.
“The way you communicate and deal with people respectfully is important and emphasized in that credo,” he said.
The fraternity also taught him the value of collaboration and how a group can accomplish much more than one can individually.
“In my career, I certainly can’t do everything by myself,” said Miller. “SAE taught me to work and rely on other people to achieve a common objective. In my current job, if I tried to do it all myself, I would burn out in a month.”
“Without question, Matt Miller is a True Gentleman and an excellent leader,” said Marc Rosenow (IABE ’86) , president of the Iowa Beta Alumni Association. “We are fortunate to have someone of his dedication, energy and passion play an important role in the future of Iowa Beta. Matt is a genuine Brother Hero.”
“The Iowa Beta Chapter can only return to its former glory if it has the strong support of its alumni population,” Miller said. “The brothers in my era are needed to secure a brighter future. I am delighted to be a part of one of the largest SAE alumni groups in the country and to play a role in its success.I urge all Iowa alumni to join the Iowa Beta Alumni Association.”
Quiz answer: The eight Founding Fathers of SAE
The Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity was founded March 9, 1856 at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. Its founding fathers were five seniors at the university (DeVotie, Cockrell, Rudulph, Kerr and Foster) and three juniors (Dennis, Patton and Cook). Of all the existing national fraternities today, SAE is the only one founded in the Antebellum South.
Noble Leslie DeVotie was the principal founder and developed The Ritual , the grip and selected the fraternity’s name. Rudulph would subsequently design the badge.
History does not record the exact date that DeVotie first conceived of the idea of starting the fraternity. But it is known that during the autumn of 1855, he talked about it with his closest friends as they walked along the banks of the Black Warrior River that edged the university campus. In the months that followed, they held a few preliminary meetings to discuss the concept at the home of John Webb Kerr.
So it came to be that these young men met on the evening of March 8 at Mansion House to finalize their plans. They deliberated all night and the fraternity was founded the next day, on March 9, 1856.
While the fraternity recognizes Thomas Chappell Cook as one of the 8 Founding Fathers, he was actually not present that evening. In January of that year, Cook transferred from Alabama to Princeton University. Nevertheless, the others voted him to be a founding member and he initiated himself into the fraternity using the Ritual that DeVotie sent him.
SAE initially confined its growth to the southern states, but its growth was rapid. By the end of 1857, the fraternity numbered seven chapters. Its first national convention met in the summer of 1858 at Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
By the time of the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, fifteen SAE chapters had been established with approximately 400 members.
But the Civil War decimated SAE. Seventy members of the fraternity lost their lives in the war, including DeVotie, who is officially known as the first man on either side to give his life in military service. Only one chapter, Columbian College in Washington, D.C., survived.
However, SAE would soon rise from the ashes. When several SAE war veterans returned to the Georgia Military Institute and found their college had been burned to the ground, they decided to attend the University of Georgia at Athens and start an SAE chapter there.
Similarly, several SAE veterans started a chapter at the University of Virginia. The founding of these chapters in 1865 ultimately led to the fraternity’s revival.
Today, Sigma Alpha Epsilon is the preeminent Greek-letter social fraternity with more than 307,000 initiates and approximately 14,000 undergraduate members at 228 active chapters and 14 colonies across the US. It is headquartered in Evanston, Ill. at the Levere Memorial Temple.
Did you know?
Because of World War II, there were no Olympic Games in 1940 or 1944. Despite severe rationing in the aftermath of war, the 1948 summer Olympics were successfully held in London, England.
It was the first time that the Olympic Games were ever broadcast on television, that starting blocks were used for sprint races, and the first time that indoor pools were used for swimming events.
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Wally Ris (IABE‘50) , a Chicago native, won two gold medals for the United States while setting two Olympic records in the men's 100-meter freestyle and as a team member for the men's 4x200-meter freestyle relay. He was the Mark Spitz of his era.
Ris starred on the Iowa Hawkeyes swimming and diving team in National Collegiate Athletic Association competition from 1947 to 1949. He was the NCAA national champion in the 100-yard freestyle in 1948 and 1949.
At 6-2, he also was outstanding at football and was recruited by Illinois but the war interrupted those plans. After the war, when he visited Iowa City to consider a spot on the swim team, he fell in love with Iowa City and became a Hawkeye.
Our houses
The Iowa Beta chapter was founded in 1905 and has had several houses over the years. The house at 303 N. Riverside, which was built by Iowa Beta in 1926, recently changed its address to 302 Ridgeland but is the same house.
Iowa Beta chapter houses
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Join forces with SAE
The Iowa Beta Alumni Association surpassed the 200-member mark in December and is marching toward 300. We would like to count you as a member in good standing. Please do so by completing the short form on our website at www.iowabetasae.org.
Happy Founder's Month
· February 11, 1905: Iowa Beta Chapter was installed as a chapter by William C. Levere
· February 5, 1983: Iowa Beta Chapter was re-installed after leaving campus in the late 1970s
· Fall 2016: Iowa Beta will return to campus at the University of Iowa after being briefly suspended in 2012
The Iowa Beta Alumni Association and the house corporation have been working very hard to keep proud of Iowa Beta and help you connect with the brothers in your fraternity.
We would like to hear from you. What do you think of Association's progress so far? What can it do better? Are you satisfied with the frequency and content of communications?We are here to serve you.
Please send your comments and suggestions to: marc.rosenow@iowabetasae.org.
