2003 Memorial
The Jordan Standard
Below this ground are the bones of Benjamin Piatt Runkle. Above this ground is the spirit of Benjamin Piatt Runkle. Within your heart is the spirit of Benjamin Piatt Runkle that was passed to you by Founder succession. The Founders challenged other Sigma Chis, they initiated other Sigma Chis, and they passed to other Sigma Chis the spirit that was inherent within all of them. It is within your heart. The spirit of the Seven Founders, the spirit of the Sigma Chis that were in your life when you were initiated that knew Sigma Chis that knew the Founders. Some day our bones or our ashes will be below the ground. And it is up to us to make sure that our spirit and the spirit of the Founders is passed to other Sigma Chis. Brothers, guard well the honor the Cross.
Jon Miller
Oklahoma State '66
The confidence of the Founders of Sigma Chi was based upon a belief that the principles which they professed and the ideal of the Fraternity which they sought were but imperfectly realized in the organizations by which they were surrounded. So Founder Isaac M. Jordan, MIAMI (OHIO) 1857, authored the criteria upon which men should be recruited into the Fraternity:
The standard with which the Fraternity started was declared by Isaac M. Jordan to be that of admitting no man to membership in Sigma Chi who is not believed to be:
A man of good character …
A student of fair ability …
With ambitious purposes …
A congenial disposition …
Possessed of good morals …
Having a high sense of honor and
A deep sense of personal responsibility.
The Sigma Chi Creed
I believe in fairness, decency and good manners. I will endeavor to retain the spirit of youth. I will try to make my college, the Sigma Chi Fraternity, and my own chapter more honored by all men and women and more beloved and honestly respected by our own brothers. I say these words in all sincerity; That Sigma Chi has given me favor and distinction; that the bond of our fellowship is reciprocal, that I will endeavor to so build myself and so conduct myself that I will ever be a credit to our Fraternity.
~14th Grand Consul and Significant Sig George Ade, PURDUE 1887.
The Spirit of Sigma Chi
The Spirit of Sigma Chi, as conceived by the Founders more than 155 years ago yet visible and alive today, is based on the theory that …
… Friendship among members, sharing a common belief in an ideal, …
… and possessing different temperaments, talents, and convictions …
… is superior to friendship among members having the same temperaments, talents, and convictions; and that …
… Genuine friendship can be maintained without surrendering the principle of individuality or sacrificing one’s personal judgment.
My Badge
The badge of my Fraternity is a cross, a sign and a symbol known to all the world, uplifting HIM of whom our badge reminds us. It is not a shield of timid defense, nor a drawn sword of oppressive aggression, nor an arrow swift and sure on its mission of death. It is not a diamond, so rich and so rare as to have no part in the common crowd, nor a crescent pale and incomplete, nor a star shining with a borrowed ray. It is not a lamp whose feeble flame is extinguished by the slightest gust of wind that blows, nor a simple monogram of mysterious Greek letters presuming to reveal some hidden meaning.
But a cross, with its base planted in the common clay of earth, its arms outstretched to all the world, and its head lifted heavenward. It is a White Cross, suggesting purity. As any pure white surface reflects all the rays of light without the absorption of any, so the White Cross of Sigma Chi reflects its ideals unselfishly to all Mankind.
- W. Henry McLean