Jan. 5, 2018

Sigma Phi Epsilon chapter house to close through spring for repairs

The Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity has announced its chapter house at Northwest Missouri State University incurred extensive water damage last weekend, Dec. 30-31, as the result of a heating system failure during sub-zero temperatures and will remain closed for the spring 2018 trimester while repairs and renovations are completed.  

The chapter's alumni corporation owns the house, which is located at 530 W. 9th St. in Maryville. It was built in 1998 to house up to 28 members, had 25 members were slated to live in the house during the spring trimester.

The fraternity’s alumni members, in connection with Sigma Phi Epsilon’s national headquarters and chapter advisor Scott Nielson as well as the University's Greek Life and Residential Life staffs worked quickly during the holiday week to address alternative housing options for the displaced members.

Additionally, Sigma Phi Epsilon recently announced that it has adopted a substance-free policy for all fraternity facilities throughout its network of 215 chapters at colleges and universities in the United States. 

“In connection with the recently announced substance-free standards, our alumni leadership had been discussing potential renovations and improvements in 2019 to allow more space for residential learning," Alumni Corporation President Anthony Belcher said. "With the time we have between now and when classes resume in the fall, we intend to accelerate some of these improvements.”

Chapter President Tyler Dinsmore added, “It is really unfortunate that we experienced a furnace failure while we were all away on Christmas break, at the same time that Maryville has such extreme temperatures. The members that I have spoken with have taken the bad news pretty well, and we’ll likely have a mix of guys who end up living in dorms this trimester and off-campus.”

Sigma Phi Epsilon, established in 1901, is one of the nation’s largest fraternities, with over 15,000 undergraduates on 240 campuses across the United States. Its mission is building balanced men, which is achieved through a continuous member development program that has created a fraternity-wide GPA of over 3.0, a focus on the principles of Sound Mind and Sound Body, and service learning efforts that encourage members to give back

The Northwest chapter was established in 1980 and has 73 active members.