NHPW Message from the Executive Director
Conversation
At the core of our Fraternity's founding almost 150 years ago was a commitment to militate against the abuse of VMI's "rats." The rats were often at the mercy of some misguided or sadistic upperclass cadets, the former convinced that enduring brutal physical and mental hazing was necessary to establish a real citizen-soldier and the latter deriving perverse satisfaction from the infliction thereof.
Enter James Frank Hopkins. Greenfield Quarles. James McIlvaine Riley.
Enter three men with Vision and the Courage to act to make that vision a reality.
The rest is history. Our history.
Today, as it has been everyday since that fateful October night on the Parade Ground, this legacy is our charge to keep: to build men of honor, ethical leaders for a troubled world - by the sheer force of positive education and example, elective discipline, and voluntary dedication to our timeless principles of Love, Honor, and Truth, without the use of physical force or the cowardly crutch of coerced obedience, both of which destroy true Brotherhood and threaten not only the well-being of others but the very future of our resolve.
It is our commitment to and ability to realize this singular purpose - more than anything else that we do - that will determine whether or not the Legion of Honor continues to grow and thrive.
We will not be perfect in our endeavors. As our Ritual states, "institutions were made for men, and not men for institutions." It is in the creation of our Fraternity and the earnest pursuit of its aspirational purpose that the real value of Sigma Nu Fraternity is found. "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another" (Proverbs 27:17).
I am honored to work with and for you, the men of our Fraternity who take up this charge everyday for Sigma Nu to advance this relentless and ongoing campaign against hazing.
Fraternally Yours,
Brad Beacham (Texas Christian)
Executive Director