by Izamary Rios
Kappa Sigma is known to be the largest fraternity in the country with over 320 chapters and 250 thousand alumni. Kappa Sigma’s chapter at CMU, Sigma Mu, was also the first fraternity on campus.
Sigma Mu was founded in January 2013. Sigma Mu had about 72 founding fathers their first semester. They currently have 29 active members and 27 pledges.
James Smith-Allen, the current president of Sigma Mu, has been a part of this fraternity since November 2014. Allen has been part of the executive board since he was first initiated. He is currently a senior and will finish his term as president in the next two months.
Smith-Allen explained that fraternities have a stigma created by the media that needs to be changed. Everyone in the fraternity cares so much about their brotherhood, they do not want to have a bad reputation. Kappa Sigma has a philanthropy partnership with Military Heroes Campaign. Not only do they work with veterans, they also have a few members who are veterans.
Along with working with veterans, they enjoy serving the community. They are putting on a drag show in the next two weeks to help the LGBT community. Every year Sigma Mu also tries to do a clothing drive. They try to get people to donate clothes that are still in good use, but are no longer needed or wanted. They then donate the clothes to the homeless community of Grand Junction.
“Greek life is about breaking you out of your comfort zone. It’s about having a family away from home,” Smith-Allen said. “It’s a great networking opportunity. Every time I fly home out of DIA I wear letters because I will get stopped by some alumni and we well talk for like 30 minutes. I have been offered jobs and people have bought me dinner. No matter where you go, you will mostly run into a Kappa Sigma.”
The brothers of Sigma Mu hope to leave a good legacy far beyond them. They would like to change the stereotypes that come with Greek life in general. Sigma Mu will start their mid semester rush next week, and they hope to gain 15 more members.
