This page contains a brief history of our chapter.

Go to the SigmaChi.org History Page for our international history.

Before we received our Sigma Chi charter, we were named Phi Epsilon Phi and our house was on 8th Ave. and Tibbits Avenue. In the late 1940's, that house burned down, so we moved to our current location on Pinewoods Avenue. December 2, 1950 was a very fortunate day for Phi Epsilon Phi. From that day forward, we would be known as the Delta Psi Chapter of the Sigma Chi Fraternity at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The Delta Psi Chapter was established with 45 brothers, a full house, although it would later be expanded to accomodate the still-growing fraternity. In 1970, the Delta Psi undergraduates built an addition dedicated to Arch Love III. Today it is more commonly referred to as the "new house."

Construction began late fall '71 with completion in Spring/Summer '72. Preliminary design was done by C. Ray Allshouse '70 (House Manager '68-'69, Consul '69-'70) during his final year in the School of Architecture. Engineering & general contracting was done by Joe Champagne (RSE '55). The two spruce trees that hide the addition from the street today, as well as the maples that line the parking lot, were planted by Bill Wurst in the 1973-4 time frame. This was to satisfy a request made by our neighbors during the planning process for the addition.

At the time of Delta Psi's 20th anniversary (and Phi Epsilon Phi's 50th - PEP was the local that petitioned Sigma Chi back in 1949-50*), full occupancy of the house was 27 brothers, but the actives numbered about 40. Rooms were chosen first by officers and then in order of reverse seniority. For many brothers, there was simply "no room at the inn," so to keep close to the house, they moved into nearby apartment buildings. Basically, the house was always at full occupancy and always had a long waiting list to get in.

The addition increased full occupancy to 43 and gave us a party room for the first time. Previously, the living room had also served as a party room on Saturday nights. The Conservatory had been used for dining and games, and the back room (where the pool table is currently located) housed the bar and a piano.

Chapter membership dropped in the early 2000's to around 25 active brothers. At that time, each room, most of which can be made doubles or triples, was used only as a single. Chapter membership rose once again in 2008 with 17 new initiates. The chapter is now a healthy size and still increasing in strength.

A new tradition started in the summer of 2006. Our annual fall pre-semester work session was revamped. Alumni have donated over $45,000 over the last two years for the improvement of the house. Projects were set up, organized by professional and experienced alumni, such as painting the house exterior, laying tile in the kitchen, and rebuilding the porch ceiling. Thanks to our great alumni and eager actives, the house improves physically each year.

We are the proud producers of four Order of Constantine Sigs, the highest honor in our fraternity:

--Archibald L. Love, III, Rensselaer '42
--Lawrence W. Mentz, Rensselaer '68
--Robert H.W. Jones, III, Rensselaer '73 (Currently the Grand Consul of the International Sigma Chi Fraternity)
--Robert J. Shortle, Jr., Rensselaer '74

Delta Psi alumni are also prominent in other areas of life, especially engineering and IT:

--Robert Widmer '38 (Phi Ep Phi; Inducted into RPI Alumni Hall of Fame in 2007; was vice president of engineering operations at General Dynamics)
--Paul Cosgrave '72 (CIO of New York City in 2006)

--William Pomeroy '66