Building Balanced Men

Frequently Asked Questions

Why should I join a fraternity?

The University of Wisconsin-Madison is huge- 25,000 undergraduates go to school here. Becoming involved in an organization or group is the best way to make the most out of college. The Greek System has about 3,000 members total, in 11 sororities and 24 fraternities. Becoming part of Greek Life is a great way to make campus seem a little smaller. Check out www.uwgreek.com for more information about Greek Life on campus.

If you have any preconceived notions of what Greek Life is like, get rid of them. Thanks to
Animal House, Greek, and more, thousands of men and women never even think about joining a fraternity or sorority- missing out on the countless opportunities available to grow as people and leaders. Fraternities and sororities provide a unique combination: family, home away from home, social organization, business and organization in which students can develop confidence as they acquire competence. The opportunities for leadership are unlimited and the most important thing is that the principles of leadership are learned through experience. Statistics speak for themselves; click here to see!

What about hazing?

Sigma Phi Epsilon does NOT haze, period.


The men of Sigma Phi Epsilon have a firm belief that hazing has no place in our Fraternity in any form. The chapter guarantees that any man who becomes a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon will not be hazed. If at any time a member feels that he has been hazed in any way, he can have every penny in dues
paid returned, and will have no further obligation to the chapter. We offer this money-back guarantee, but have never had to refund dues because of an incidence of hazing.

There are many reasons why we do not haze our new members. We are not training men for battle, so a heavily disciplined "boot camp" style of development is not necessary and is, in fact, a violation of Fraternity policy. We are neither a football team nor the military, so yelling and physical drills are not tolerated. We are not a fifth grade class, so we do not watch our new members every minute of every day. We do not believe we need to "tear someone down so we can build them up again," which is the common justification among organizations which participate in hazing. We take only men of the highest quality to begin with, and try to help them grow in positive ways.

We develop men as individuals, and we are proud of our diversity and respect for every one of our members. We are a fraternity consisting of the best individuals the University of Wisconsin has to offer. Our fraternity is founded on the principles of Virtue, Diligence, and Brotherly Love. Hazing and degradation have nothing to do with our Brotherhood. We believe our development program is one of the best personal orientation and education programs on this campus. We make it available to parents, campus leaders, and members of the community so they can see that Sigma Phi Epsilon is developing their young men into leaders of which they can be proud. For all these reasons, the men of Sigma Phi Epsilon do not haze. Those who haze are not SigEps.


What is recruitment like?


The University of Wisconsin-Madison designates a few weeks at the beginning of each semester to "Dry Recruitment," which is a time period where no alcohol is allowed in the common areas of any fraternity. During this time, fraternities usually have events where active members have a chance to meet prospective new members. It varies for each fraternity, but typically events will be simple and fun- from BBQ's to Brewers games to watching Badger Football. The idea in holding these events is to see if there is a mutual fit between the fraternity and the prospective new members. During the final week of Dry Recruitment, fraternities are allowed to extend bids- a formal invitation to join their fraternity- to any prospective new member they would like. Prospective new members then have the opportunity to accept or decline that bid until Dry Recruitment ends.

Interested in learning more about SigEp Recruitment? Click here!