The History of GT Chi Epsilon

The Georgia Tech chapter of Chi Epsilon was chartered on January 31, 1943 by 15 Civil Engineering students as the 20th Chi Epsilon chapter. Over the years we have grown to our current membership level of over 80 active students and 1800 alumni. We conduct several social events each semester geared toward bringing the Civil Engineering society closer. In addition, we always look for opportunities to ensure the success of our members. A great example of this commitment is our new program for fall 2006. We have created a Civil specific FE review which we expect to be extremely beneficial to all participants.

Due to Chi Epsilon's focus on creating successful Civil Engineers, Georgia Tech Chi Epsilon alumni have gone on to lead successful and meaningful Civil Engineering careers all over the world. Here is a brief statement of one of our outstanding alumni.

"…I currently live in Germany… Right now, I am working as the chief of the design branch for the Directorate of Public Works (DPW) for the Darmstadt military community. My job is to design projects, along with my all locally-hired (German) staff, that will help maintain a good quality of life for the soldiers and their families that are stationed here.…I feel it's important to bring a little bit of America to our installations overseas so that our soldiers and their families are more comfortable during their tour of duty."

-- Lewis Miles, P.E. Chief, Engineering Services Branch

The Georgia Tech chapter of Chi Epsilon was created to support the education of successful engineers who will serve our community. In order to create these professionals we are always looking for fundraising opportunities and corporate sponsorship. We have several events throughout the year which are in need of funding, and we are grateful for any tax deductible donations or participation from corporations in these events. Without the assistance of the community our chapter would not be able to continue to support excellent engineers. If you are interested in making a tax deductible donation or participating in a Chi Epsilon even please contact us at chiep@gatech.edu.



The History of National Chi Epsilon

In the spring of 1922 two groups of Civil Engineering students at the University of Illinois, one calling itself Chi Epsilon, and the other calling itself Chi Delta Chi, independently of each other, took steps to petition the faculty for permission to establish an honorary civil engineering fraternity. As soon as the existence of the two groups became known to each other, plans were immediately propagated to merge the two groups. On May 20, 1922, the Council of the University granted permission to the petitioning group of 25 charter members to found the CHI EPSILON FRATERNITY.

As soon as the plans for the local organization had been perfected, steps were taken to expand into a national fraternity by banding together with groups at various other universities. An active expansion policy was decided upon and letters were written to the presidents of all the large engineering schools inviting petitions to Chi Epsilon. Meanwhile, the petition to the State of Illinois to incorporate as a national honorary civil engineering fraternity was granted and the certificate of incorporation issued on February 13, 1923.

Many encouraging replies were received from various universities, but it was not until March 29, 1923 upon the installation of the Armour Chapter at the Armour Institute of Technology, that Chi Epsilon became truly a national fraternity.

In the first 35 years of its history Chi Epsilon had established 49 chapters. Since then the society has grown at a steady rate of 20 chapters per decade. The 25th National Conclave voted to change the name of our organization from Chi Epsilon Fraternity to Chi Epsilon. A total of 40,000 members had been initiated since the founding.

Exerpts from chi-epsilon.org National Chi Epsilon website.