Collegiate & Chapter Awards
Each year, Sigma Nu Fraternity recognizes chapter and individual achievements across a number of categories – merit awards, Alpha Alumni Chapter Affiliate recognition, LEAD, Pursuit of Excellence, Rock Chapter (only at Grand Chapters), scholarship, manpower, and community service & philanthropy. Awards recognize an individual's or chapter's accomplishments for the previous academic year, or, in some cases an individual's collegiate career.
Application Materials
Collegiate Awards Descriptions – Merit and Alpha Affiliate
Individual collegiate awards include: Alpha Chapter Affiliates, Man of the Year, Scholar of the Year, Talent of the Year and Athlete of the Year. Criteria and application instructions for these awards are provided in this packet.
Collegiate Awards Application – Merit and Alpha Affiliate
All applicants for an individual collegiate awards – Alpha Chapter Affiliates, Man of the Year, Scholar of the Year, Talent of the Year or Athlete of the Year – should complete and submit this form by April 30.
Collegiate Awards Recommendation Form – Merit and Alpha Affiliate
All applicants for individual collegiate awards – Alpha Chapter Affiliates, Man of the Year, Scholar of the Year, Talent of the Year or Athlete of the Year – require three (3) letters of recommendation.
Collegiate Awards Chapter Endorsement Form - Merit and Alpha Affiliate
All applicants for individual collegiate awards – Alpha Chapter Affiliates, Man of the Year, Scholar of the Year, Talent of the Year or Athlete of the Year – require completion of the chapter endorsement form by the current Commander of Lt. Commander.
Collegiate Awards Transcript Request
Official transcripts are required for all Scholar of the Year award applicants.
2023 Merit Award Winners
2023 Merit Award Recipients
Alpha Alumni Chapter Affiliates
The Fraternity salutes those Knights, who demonstrate a genuine commitment to the ideals of the Legion of Honor and whose pattern of performance is a worthy example for others to follow.
- Alpha #690 – Charles W. Coffey, III (MIT)
- Alpha #691 – Jackson T. Conner (Oklahoma)
- Alpha #692 – Harper F.T. Doerr (Louisiana State)
- Alpha #693 – Ricardo G. Guevara (Central Arkansas)
- Alpha #694 – Andrew B. Hengstler (Washington)
- Alpha #695 – Raaif I. Majeed (Northern Illinois)
- Alpha #696 – J. Stewart McCullough (Mississippi)
- Alpha #697 – Logan T. Phillips (Southeast Missouri State)
- Alpha #698 – Joel M. Philpott (Southeast Missouri State)
- Alpha #699 – Elliot C. Siekmann (Southeast Missouri State)
Scholar of the Year
The Fraternity recognizes the individual who has demonstrated excellence in the area of Scholarship.
- Jackson T. Conner (Oklahoma)
Man of the Year
The Fraternity recognizes the individual who has demonstrated all-around excellence in the area of Leadership, Chapter and Campus Involvement, and Scholarship.
- Elliot C. Siekmann (Southeast Missouri State)
2023 Chapter Awards
LEAD Awards
LEAD Awards recognize those chapters and individuals that have exhibited excellence in their use of an individual phase of the program; innovation in their adaptation and expansion of parts of the program as it is implemented into their own, unique circumstance; individual alumnus and collegiate facilitators who have demonstrated an extraordinary contribution to the brotherhood through their facilitation of the program; LEAD Chairmen and Committees that have implemented an outstanding program for their local membership; and the chapter(s) that best represents an ideal application of the program at the collegiate level.
Pursuit of Excellence Awards
Chapters receiving an overall level of excellence for one of the three standard areas – Values-Based Leadership, Personal Development and Membership Value, Operational Excellence – will be recognized for the Pursuit of Excellence in that standard.
Rock Chapter Awards
The Rock Chapter Award is meant to honor collegiate chapters that have achieved excellence in all areas of chapter operations. To be granted the award, a chapter should be expected to attain the ideals or a nearly perfect state across a broad range of areas of fraternity operations. The Rock Chapter award is only presented at Grand Chapters, (i.e. every two years), providing there are chapters that qualify. Rock Chapter award recipients will be those chapters that consistently achieve very good to excellent ratings in the Pursuit of Excellence Program over the course of the biennium.
Scholarship Awards
Each year, Sigma Nu Fraternity recognizes those chapters that excel academically. These awards do not require an application and are based on the prior calendar year (i.e., Spring and Fall 2022 grades). Winners from the most recent year are below.
Gallaher Cup
This award is given to the chapter with the 1st place GPA of all Sigma Nu chapters nationwide.
- Gamma Beta (Northwestern) – GPA of 3.74 in Fall 2022
Bronze Cup
This award is given to the chapter with the 2nd highest GPA of all Sigma Nu chapters nationwide.
- Gamma Omicron (Washington in St. Louis) – GPA of 3.65 in Fall 2022
- Sigma (Vanderbilt) – GPA of 3.65 in Spring 2022
Certificate of Commendation
This award is given to the chapter with the 3rd highest GPA of all Sigma Nu chapters nationwide.
- Delta Alpha (Case Western Reserve) – GPA of 3.64 in Spring 2022
Certificate of Merit
This is the award given to the chapter with the 4th highest GPA of all Sigma Nu chapters nationwide.
- Epsilon Pi (UCLA) – GPA of 3.61 in Fall 2022
Regent's Award for Academic Excellence
This award is given to the chapters that have achieved the highest GPA among fraternities on their campus during the 2022 calendar year.
- Beta Iota (Mount Union)
- Epsilon Alpha (Arizona)
- Epsilon Xi (Mississippi)
- Eta Delta (West Texas A&M)
- Eta Pi (Hampden-Sydney)
- Gamma Beta (Northwestern)
- Kappa (North Georgia)
- Kappa Theta (Jacksonville)
- Lambda Upsilon (Cal State, Fullerton)
- Mu Kappa (Southeast Missouri State)
- Nu Alpha (Arkansas-Fort Smith)
- Nu Delta (High Point)
- Nu Epsilon (Tennessee at Chattanooga)
- Phi (Louisiana State)
- Zeta Phi (Bradley)
- Zeta Xi (UC Davis)
Scholarship Improvement Award
This award is given to the chapter that has shown the greatest improvement in its GPA among other fraternities on its campus and among all Sigma Nu chapters.
- Theta Alpha (South Florida) – GPA increase from 2.62 to 3.08 (+0.46)
Manpower Awards
Each year, Sigma Nu Fraternity, Inc. recognizes those chapters that excel in the areas of recruitment and manpower. These awards do not require an application.
This award is given to the chapters that have achieved a manpower of above 100 men.
- Beta Alpha (Yale) – 106 men
- Beta Eta (Indiana) – 132 men
- Beta Theta (Auburn) – 204 men
- Beta Zeta (Purdue) – 104 men
- Delta (South Carolina) – 148 men
- Delta Epsilon (Oklahoma) – 182 men
- Delta Phi (Maryland) – 104 men
- Delta Rho (Colorado State) – 107 men
- Epsilon Alpha (Arizona) – 101 men
- Epsilon Epsilon (Oklahoma State) – 134 men
- Epsilon Eta (Tennessee) - 175 men
- Epsilon Mu (Butler) – 112 men
- Epsilon Pi (UCLA) – 118 men
- Epsilon Xi (Mississippi) – 272 men
- Eta Tau (Texas State) – 110 men
- Eta Zeta (Louisiana Tech) – 105 men
- Gamma Iota (Kentucky) – 102 men
- Gamma Kappa (Colorado) – 165 men
- Gamma Upsilon (Arkansas) – 305 men
- Gamma Zeta (Oregon) – 166 men
- Iota Theta (Southern Methodist) – 140 men
- Lambda Epsilon (Texas Christian) – 127 men
- Mu (Georgia) – 153 men
- Mu Kappa (Southeast Missouri State) – 112 men
- Phi (Louisiana State) – 174 men
- Rho (Missouri) – 173 men
- Theta (Alabama) – 148 men
- Zeta Pi (Texas Tech) – 122 men
- Zeta Upsilon (Arizona State) – 155 men
This award is given to the chapters that have achieved a manpower of above 80 men.
- Beta (Virginia) – 82 men
- Beta Tau (North Carolina State) – 91 men
- Epsilon Lambda (Utah) – 88 men
- Gamma Mu (Illinois) – 95 men
- Gamma Nu (Michigan) – 96 men
- Iota Delta (James Madison) – 97 men
- Kappa Pi (Cal Poly San Luis Obispo) – 97 men
- Kappa Zeta (Villanova) – 92 men
- Nu (Kansas) – 98 men
- Nu Delta (High Point) – 87 men
- Psi (North Carolina) – 84 men
- Theta Kappa (Georgia Southern) – 97 men
- Theta Rho (Illinois State) – 99 men
- Theta Zeta (Clemson) – 90 men
- Zeta Xi (UC Davis) – 81 men
25% Increase in Manpower Award
This award is given to the chapters that have achieved at least a 25% increase in manpower from the previous year.
- Beta Alpha (Yale) – 108% increase
- Beta Upsilon (Rose-Hulman) – 27% increase
- Beta Zeta (Purdue) – 27% increase
- Delta Phi (Maryland) – 35% increase
- Delta Tau (Oregon State) – 26% increase
- Epsilon Alpha (Arizona) – 51% increase
- Epsilon Chi (Bowling Green State) – 37% increase
- Eta Epsilon (Kentucky Wesleyan) – 30% increase
- Eta Iota (Northern Arizona) – 37% increase
- Eta Nu (Louisiana at Lafayette) – 37% increase
- Eta Zeta (Louisiana Tech) – 35% increase
- Gamma Beta (Northwestern) – 49% increase
- Gamma Mu (Illinois) – 34% increase
- Gamma Nu (Michigan) – 48% increase
- Gamma Phi (Montana) – 81% increase
- Gamma Zeta (Oregon) – 29% increase
- Kappa (North Georgia) – 30% increase
- Kappa Rho (UC San Diego) – 51% increase
- Kappa Theta (Jacksonville) – 89% increase
- Lambda Chi (Cal State San Bernardino) – 29% increase
- Lambda Upsilon (Cal State Fullerton) – 183% increase
- Mu Beta (Alabama in Huntsville) – 45% increase
- Mu Eta (UNC Asheville) – 30% increase
- Theta Kappa (Georgia Southern) – 34% increase
- Theta Lambda (Eastern Washington) – 25% increase
- Theta Nu (Ball State) – 40% increase
- Zeta Chi (Houston) – 42% increase
- Zeta Sigma (Gettysburg) – 29% increase
- Zeta Theta (Presbyterian) – 38% increase
- Zeta Upsilon (Arizona State) – 27% increase
Service and Philanthropy Awards
Each year, Sigma Nu Fraternity, Inc. recognizes those chapters that excel in the areas of service and philanthropy. These awards do not require an application. Selections are made based on Pursuit of Excellence submissions, including chapter reports of verifiable service and philanthropic contributions.
Community Service Contribution Award
This award recognizes the chapter with the highest per man average of verifiable community service hours throughout the course of the previous academic year.
- Beta Iota (Mount Union) – 46 hours per man
Philanthropy Contribution Award
This award recognizes the chapter with the highest per man average of verifiable philanthropic dollars donated throughout the course of the previous academic year.
- Gamma Nu (Michigan) – $2,592 per man