NYX The Beginning - As Told by Edward Valenta ('02), Founding Father
"The beginning of Sigma Phi Epsilon at Clarkson is in many ways the same, and and in others different, than the founding of the first SigEp chapter.
Here is 'our' story,
So that's not entirely true, this is my story and my view. As one of the first involved in this fraternity, I feel more than capable of relating the events that led to our being. Others may have a different view or opinion of what happened, as the experiences that led to their becoming a SigEp were possibly different.
When many of us came to college in the Fall of 1998 we were like any freshmen; curious, adventurous, (uninformed) or any crazy mix of the above and more. I came a week early for Clarkson Varsity Soccer's preseason. Also present were future SigEps Chris Werely, Matt Thomas, Nathan Mascolino, John Hall, Matt Secko & Chris Muehl. Through the soccer team we developed important friendships and found out many aspects of college life... how to get better grades, what and where to eat, how to treat or get around the faculty and RAs, and most of all parties! Parties naturally led us to Greek life at Clarkson. Some of our soccer teammates were part of Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi). They provided our first look into fraternity life. While at first our first look only included social events and parties, eventually late night talks with brothers let light on the many other aspects of what a fraternity is all about. We got to see what went into the financial side, the politics and community relations headaches that most of Clarkson's fraternities underwent on a daily basis. AEPi was on its way out of the Clarkson Greek community and though they provided some excellent memories and numerous friendships, they also illustrated how a fraternity can easily fall apart.
They are called social fraternities for a reason... they are a means to socialize. However the original founders of most fraternities probably didn't envision the wild parties of the animal house era. Though at times this kind of operation is attractive and downright fun, it doesn't make for a good social organization. Many of us planned on joining AEPi and resurrecting it. They had recently lost their house and were quickly losing members to graduation, grades and transfers. However it was a lost cause. The next fall many of us started talking about forming a new fraternity.
The idea was popular but we didn't know exactly what to do. Later that fall we held meetings to discuss the idea informally, remember townhouse A45?!? Andres Garcia and Ross Morrow were of great help in this early stage. We eventually elected officers, President: Chris Werely (nominated by Ed Valenta), Vice President: Ed Valenta (nominated by Nathan Mascolino), Secretary: Nathan Mascolino (nominated by Ed Valenta) Then we talked to Matt Tessier, the Greek coordinator, about it. He supported our idea and set up meetings the following spring with various fraternities. Originally our interest group consisted of AEPi rushes and friends, and eventually grew to around 15 members. This was an attractive size for an interest group, it would have been the 4th or 5th biggest at Clarkson. The first group we encountered was Pi Kappa Phi, however, they were not willing to wait for us to decide. The next fraternity was Alpha Sigma Phi, they were even more attractive as far as affordability and national support. However they also had some very restrictive laws in place that would have split our group, and we decided they were not the best choice for us. Sigma Phi Epsilon was the third and last. It was the most feasible and seemed the best to help us out with our set of circumstances. Our only problem was a requirement to gain 40 men within 3 years. AKA the biggest fraternity on campus!!! But they convinced us that it was possible and that they would help us get there.
Carter Ashton Jenkins attempted to create a new chapter of an existing fraternity (Chi Psi) at Richmond but was turned down because it was too small of a school and already had five fraternities. In these ways we are the same as the very first SigEp. Many fraternities would not consider Clarkson because there are merely 1300 or so young men to pick from and already nine existing fraternities. When SigEp finally backed us we had to convince 7 out of 10 of these fraternities to allow us to operate on campus. That took a lot of lobbying, none of them wanted competition in an already tough market. But we allied with many of the bigger fraternities and the rest followed, we only had one unknown chapter vote against us, and a couple abstentions. With the help of Dean Newkofsky, Matt and Kate Tessier and Clarkson University’s President, we were able to seriously take forth in our effort to bring Sigma Phi Epsilon to Clarkson.
I don't think anyone could forget their first meeting with Wes Stolp. He was in charge of trying to get our public relations efforts and finding new potential members on campus, while approving guys that we had already found. As it worked out, he and Ara Simonetti, the regional representative, couldn't really get anymore people. We had already grabbed everyone that was serious about putting their chips on the table with this new risky endeavor. Clarkson fraternities had been dropping like flies in the last 2 years. But, Wes and Ara set us up nicely and fanned the coals that let us take care of business on our own. The following months still presented many challenges. Our open bidding process, no pledging and interview and instant initiation presented many problems with CUs current Greek system laws that didn't apply to us. Also financial budgets were tight. Problems arose with other fraternities and sororities, due to the fact that we are a non-pledging chapter. We also had to change our campus image. We are not the "soccer fraternity.” Less than half of the current members are soccer players and many members of the soccer team are in different fraternities.
What we are is, a new and exciting fraternity looking for active young men who want to improve themselves, their community, love life and know its not just a mistake.
We are SigEp Clarkson!
I believe that if we survive our honeymoon period, we should be the biggest fraternity on campus in a couple semesters. We will be the pride of Clarkson's Greek system the model for other fraternities. Keep your eye on us or you'll miss it. Now's when it gets interesting!"