Doyt Perry, Ervin Kreischer and Clayton Kohl all have something in common: They have prominent buildings on campus named after them but they were also members of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity when they were at BGSU.
The fraternity was kicked off campus in 2000 but last weekend they were re-chartered and the brothers celebrated with their family, local alumni and national fraternity officers.
They were booted off campus by their local alumni who were not satisfied with the direction the fraternity was headed, according to John Sideris, the fraternity’s vice-president.
‘We were real strong in the ’70s and ’80s with 120 people but when we moved into the bigger fraternity houses the problems began,’ Sideris said. ‘The fraternity started to change, and it didn’t match the ideals of the fraternity so our alumni got us off campus.’
Sideris is the founding father of the re-chartering and is glad they are back on campus.
‘We’ve worked two and a half years for this,’ Sideris said. ‘We built this from nothing into a national fraternity, which is so rough, there were times when I thought it would never happen ‘hellip; I feel so much personal excitement not just for myself but for every member and alumni.’
J.P Callahan, the fraternity’s president, agreed that the journey to the re-chartering was difficult but worthwhile.
‘Now that it’s happened I have a feeling of disbelief,’ Callahan said. ‘We were threatened to be shut down if we didn’t meet a series of goals but it happened and it was the most amazing event in my life.’
In order to get back on campus they had to meet certain requirements. Some of the things they needed to do was have at least 30 members, hold a philanthropy, have 10 hours of community service per member, have a working budget and build a scholarship program.
The final test to determine the re-chartering was done by the national fraternity, according to J.T. Filbert, correspondence secretary.
‘We had to pass through an investigation by the national fraternity to make sure we were living up to our 12 core values as a part of the True Gentleman Initiative,’ Filbert said.
The True Gentleman Initiative is the set of values the fraternity models themselves after.
Currently the fraternity has 30 members but they would like to get bigger.
‘One of our goals is to double our size,’ Sideris said. ‘We would like to improve our University relations as well as build a better report with other fraternities and sororities.’
