Sigma Alpha Epsilon-Alabama Alpha Mu

The Alabama Alpha Mu chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon was founded on June 15, 1878 at the Agricultural & Mechanical College (now Auburn University). John E. D. Shipp came to Auburn determined to organize a chapter at a time when fraternities were forbidden on campus. Working in secrecy with SAE brothers at Georgia, Shipp had two members of Mercer University's chapter travel to Auburn to install the chapter behind Old Main in a cornfield where Samford Hall now stands. The first fraternity on Auburn's Campus- Sigma Alpha Epsilon remains a place for "The True Gentlemen."

The fraternity idea spread among the students, and before 1880 both Alpha Tau Omega and Phi Delta Theta chapters had been formed. The SAE’s disbanded from 1880 to 1886, leaving the other two as the oldest continuing fraternities on campus. By 1883, when Kappa Alpha was chartered, the college had lifted its ban on fraternities. In 1897, Auburn’s president himself, William LeRoy Brown, posed with his fellow SAE’s for this picture printed in the first Glomerata.