Stay connected with The Epsilon of Sigma Phi Society through the latest news on alumni brothers, brotherhood events, chapter programs, and fundraising initiatives that keep Sigma Phi strong at Cornell. From reunion weekends to new giving campaigns, this is your home for everything happening within the chapter's alumni community. You will also find a link to the most recent issue of The Epilsoner, the Epsilon's own newsletter, keeping you informed and engaged with your brothers near and far.
News
News
The Epsilon’s Latest Gift to Cornell: A Tradition Since 1989
O C T O B E R 2 0 2 5
Rebuilding the Brotherhood
A Campaign for the Epsilon’s Next Century on the Hill
J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 6
News from the
Spring Meeting
A P R I L 2 0 2 6
The Epsilon’s Latest Gift to Cornell: A Tradition Since 1989
O C T O B E R 2 0 2 5Rebuilding the Brotherhood
A Campaign for the Epsilon’s Next Century on the Hill
J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 6News from the
Spring Meeting
A P R I L 2 0 2 6Read the current issue of The Epsiloner!
F A L L 2 0 2 6
J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 6
Rebuilding the brotherhood
A campaign
4 Spots
Left
Rebuilding the Brotherhood A Campaign for the Epsilon's Next Century on the Hill
Rebuilding
the brotherhood
J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 6
A campaign for
the Epsilon’s Next Century
on the Hill
4 Spots
Left
The path forward is clear, and the early steps are done. The Association committed to the two-year process to reoccupy One Forest Park Lane, retained the professional recruitment firm Phired Up, and brought on a young, dynamic local alumnus to serve as its presence on the ground. Cornell completed a major round of renovations over the summer of 2025, but that was only the first phase. Significant upgrades still remain to be done before the house is ready. The Oliphant and Tanenbaum speaker programs remain a point of pride, and they will be joined by something new: the Sigma Phi Leadership Institute, a first-of-its-kind leadership program the Association hopes will become a model not just at Cornell but across the Greek system nationwide.
What happens next depends on us. The campaign goal is $3.5 million, organized in three parts.
The most urgent need is immediate. Of the $400,000 in renovations Cornell completed last summer, the Epsilon is responsible for half. Combined with loan repayment and the costs of re-establishing the chapter, the Association needs $300,000 by June 30, 2026 to stay on track. From there, a further $200,000 will fund the next phase of work, renovating the kitchen and transforming the basement social space, so the house can be fully move-in ready by August 2027.
Beyond those immediate phases sits a $2 million Facility fund. Annual gifts have kept the house standing, but ongoing restoration of a building like 1FPL has simply grown too expensive to fund year to year. A $2 million corpus, invested conservatively, would sustain the house for the next century and help defray living costs for active brothers.
The final $1 million supports Programs, chiefly the Leadership Institute, which will partner with Outward Bound and on-campus programs and build in an alumni mentoring element so new brothers can draw directly on the talent and success of those who came before them.
There is also a longer-held dream in view. An addition to the original 1933 building, first imagined more than two decades ago and sketched in 2006 renderings by Peter Flynn '66, could finally become real, adding student bedrooms, a classroom for the Leadership Institute, and a faculty- or executive-in-residence suite on land already contracted to the Epsilon. For those moved to give at a transformative level, the campaign offers tasteful naming opportunities, from the Leadership Institute and library to the Tower Suite, and for the most significant gift of all, the naming of 1FPL itself.
As Derek Bok observed, the defining moments of college life tend to happen outside the classroom. For generations of brothers, those moments happened at One Forest Park Lane. This is the moment to make sure they happen there for the next hundred years, and it depends on the brotherhood stepping forward now.
Ways to Give
Five-year pledges and one-time gifts can be made at cornellsigmaphi.org. Cornell accepts credit cards, checks, gifts of securities, and DAF grants. Checks should be made payable to Cornell University, Sigma Phi Gift Account #7872-07 and mailed to Cornell University, P.O. Box 37334, Boone, IA 50037-0334. Be sure to reference the FPO Gift Account #7872-07. Gifts may also be directed to the Epsilon Association's own 501(c)(3) Charitable Trust, longtime steward of the Oliphant Speakers Fund and the Gilbert Scholarship.
Questions? Reach out to any of the officers: Glenn R. George '85 (President), Stephen MacGuffie '95 (Vice-President), Gregory E. Powers '85 (Secretary-Treasurer), or Geoffrey O. Perry '85 (Director of Alumni Engagement & Philanthropy).The path forward is clear, and the early steps are done. The Association committed to the two-year process to reoccupy One Forest Park Lane, retained the professional recruitment firm Phired Up, and brought on a young, dynamic local alumnus to serve as its presence on the ground. Cornell completed a major round of renovations over the summer of 2025, but that was only the first phase. Significant upgrades still remain to be done before the house is ready. The Oliphant and Tanenbaum speaker programs remain a point of pride, and they will be joined by something new: the Sigma Phi Leadership Institute, a first-of-its-kind leadership program the Association hopes will become a model not just at Cornell but across the Greek system nationwide.
What happens next depends on us. The campaign goal is $3.5 million, organized in three parts.
The most urgent need is immediate. Of the $400,000 in renovations Cornell completed last summer, the Epsilon is responsible for half. Combined with loan repayment and the costs of re-establishing the chapter, the Association needs $300,000 by June 30, 2026 to stay on track. From there, a further $200,000 will fund the next phase of work, renovating the kitchen and transforming the basement social space, so the house can be fully move-in ready by August 2027.
Beyond those immediate phases sits a $2 million Facility fund. Annual gifts have kept the house standing, but ongoing restoration of a building like 1FPL has simply grown too expensive to fund year to year. A $2 million corpus, invested conservatively, would sustain the house for the next century and help defray living costs for active brothers.
The final $1 million supports Programs, chiefly the Leadership Institute, which will partner with Outward Bound and on-campus programs and build in an alumni mentoring element so new brothers can draw directly on the talent and success of those who came before them.
There is also a longer-held dream in view. An addition to the original 1933 building, first imagined more than two decades ago and sketched in 2006 renderings by Peter Flynn '66, could finally become real, adding student bedrooms, a classroom for the Leadership Institute, and a faculty- or executive-in-residence suite on land already contracted to the Epsilon. For those moved to give at a transformative level, the campaign offers tasteful naming opportunities, from the Leadership Institute and library to the Tower Suite, and for the most significant gift of all, the naming of 1FPL itself.
As Derek Bok observed, the defining moments of college life tend to happen outside the classroom. For generations of brothers, those moments happened at One Forest Park Lane. This is the moment to make sure they happen there for the next hundred years, and it depends on the brotherhood stepping forward now.
Ways to Give
Five-year pledges and one-time gifts can be made at cornellsigmaphi.org. Cornell accepts credit cards, checks, gifts of securities, and DAF grants. Checks should be made payable to Cornell University, Sigma Phi Gift Account #7872-07 and mailed to Cornell University, P.O. Box 37334, Boone, IA 50037-0334. Be sure to reference the FPO Gift Account #7872-07. Gifts may also be directed to the Epsilon Association's own 501(c)(3) Charitable Trust, longtime steward of the Oliphant Speakers Fund and the Gilbert Scholarship.
Questions? Reach out to any of the officers: Glenn R. George '85 (President), Stephen MacGuffie '95 (Vice-President), Gregory E. Powers '85 (Secretary-Treasurer), or Geoffrey O. Perry '85 (Director of Alumni Engagement & Philanthropy).
For 135 years, the Epsilon of Sigma Phi stood as a leader on the Hill, a model of what fraternal living could be. A year ago the Directors of the Epsilon Association made a deliberate choice: they voluntarily entered a two-year pause in chapter operations to reflect, renovate, and rebuild. We are now in the heart of that work. What we are building toward is not a reinvention. It’s a restoration.
The first year was spent listening. Hundreds of alumni answered surveys, and the message came back clear and consistent: bring the house back to the experience we had at Cornell. So that is the plan. Brothers living in for three years. Dinners together in the dining room. Self-governance led by the upperclassmen. Speakers and leadership programming worthy of the Sigma Phi name. Diversity of character, with room for anyone who simply fits. If that sounds familiar, it should. This is the blueprint that made Sigma Phi the most distinctive house on campus, traced straight back to the founding of the Epsilon.
J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 6
Rebuilding
the brotherhood
Rebuilding
the brotherhood
A campaign for
the Epsilon’s Next Century
on the Hill
4 Spots
Left
Rebuilding the Brotherhood A Campaign for the Epsilon's Next Century on the Hill
J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 6
Rebuilding the Brotherhood A Campaign for the Epsilon's Next Century on the Hill
4 Spots
Left
Rebuilding the brotherhood
gift to Cornell:
A TRADITION SINCE 1989
Rebuilding the brotherhood
On October 24, Epsilon Association President Glenn "Rusty" George, C'82, enjoyed a very public opportunity to recognize the recent donation of four new Cornell college banners. The donation was made jointly by the Epsilon Association and Dan Mansoor, C'76. Rusty spoke at a reception hosted by Cornell's Office of Sorority and Fraternity Life in the very special space where the banners hang: the Memorial Room at Willard Straight Hall, Cornell's student union. The event was held during Cornell's Trustee-Council Annual Meeting weekend, bringing the University's trustees to campus and to the Sigma Phi event.
The Epsilon and Dan Mansoor, C'76, first donated such banners to the University in 1989. There were eight at that time, each representing a different college within the University. In the years since, new banners have been added as new Cornell colleges have been inaugurated or their logos were updated. This gift concept was the idea of Dan Mansoor, then the Epsilon's Director of Alumni Engagement & Philanthropy. Dan had just helped create the Sigma Phi Gift Account at Cornell, the primary development mechanism used to this day by the Epsilon.
Beyond merely explaining the donation, Rusty took the opportunity to point his audience to the many and varied connections between the Society and the University. "There are numerous such touchpoints," Rusty explained, "between Sigma Phi and Cornell. Nearly two thousand graduates since our first house opened in 1890, a dozen or more faculty members over time, several trustees (including Life Trustee Ezra Cornell, C'69, and Chairman Emeritus Bob Harrison, C'73), and scores of recipients of Oliphant and Tannenbaum Speakers Fellowships over the past half-century."
He described in particular the part played by Andrew Dickson White, G'1850, who went on to become co-founder and first president of Cornell. Fortunately for Sigma Phi, that brother remained an active Sig the rest of his life. Not only did he assist in founding the Epsilon of New York, he served as editor of The Flame as well as Chairman of the S&A from 1913-15. Rusty explained: "White deeply valued all fraternities, believing they cultivated leadership, self-governance, and enduring friendship among young men. During his presidency, he accorded them pride of place at Cornell, both physically and socially." Thank you, esteemed Brother White!
The Epsilon invites any and all who visit Cornell to stop by the Memorial Room (a medieval-style hall with hammer-beam ceiling) to view the banners and to read the permanent plaque thanking Sigma Phi!
Originally published in The Flame, the journal of Sigma Phi Fraternity, Issue 143, December 2025
J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 6
gift to Cornell:
A TRADITION SINCE 1989
O C T O B E R 2 0 2 5
The Epsilon’s latest
On October 24, Epsilon Association President Glenn "Rusty" George, C'82, enjoyed a very public opportunity to recognize the recent donation of four new Cornell college banners. The donation was made jointly by the Epsilon Association and Dan Mansoor, C'76. Rusty spoke at a reception hosted by Cornell's Office of Sorority and Fraternity Life in the very special space where the banners hang: the Memorial Room at Willard Straight Hall, Cornell's student union. The event was held during Cornell's Trustee-Council Annual Meeting weekend, bringing the University's trustees to campus and to the Sigma Phi event.
The Epsilon and Dan Mansoor, C'76, first donated such banners to the University in 1989. There were eight at that time, each representing a different college within the University. In the years since, new banners have been added as new Cornell colleges have been inaugurated or their logos were updated. This gift concept was the idea of Dan Mansoor, then the Epsilon's Director of Alumni Engagement & Philanthropy. Dan had just helped create the Sigma Phi Gift Account at Cornell, the primary development mechanism used to this day by the Epsilon.
Beyond merely explaining the donation, Rusty took the opportunity to point his audience to the many and varied connections between the Society and the University. "There are numerous such touchpoints," Rusty explained, "between Sigma Phi and Cornell. Nearly two thousand graduates since our first house opened in 1890, a dozen or more faculty members over time, several trustees (including Life Trustee Ezra Cornell, C'69, and Chairman Emeritus Bob Harrison, C'73), and scores of recipients of Oliphant and Tannenbaum Speakers Fellowships over the past half-century."
He described in particular the part played by Andrew Dickson White, G'1850, who went on to become co-founder and first president of Cornell. Fortunately for Sigma Phi, that brother remained an active Sig the rest of his life. Not only did he assist in founding the Epsilon of New York, he served as editor of The Flame as well as Chairman of the S&A from 1913-15. Rusty explained: "White deeply valued all fraternities, believing they cultivated leadership, self-governance, and enduring friendship among young men. During his presidency, he accorded them pride of place at Cornell, both physically and socially." Thank you, esteemed Brother White!
The Epsilon invites any and all who visit Cornell to stop by the Memorial Room (a medieval-style hall with hammer-beam ceiling) to view the banners and to read the permanent plaque thanking Sigma Phi!
Originally published in The Flame, the journal of Sigma Phi Fraternity, Issue 143, December 2025
gift to Cornell:
A TRADITION SINCE 1989
The Epsilon’s latest
On October 24, Epsilon Association President Glenn "Rusty" George, C'82, enjoyed a very public opportunity to recognize the recent donation of four new Cornell college banners. The donation was made jointly by the Epsilon Association and Dan Mansoor, C'76. Rusty spoke at a reception hosted by Cornell's Office of Sorority and Fraternity Life in the very special space where the banners hang: the Memorial Room at Willard Straight Hall, Cornell's student union. The event was held during Cornell's Trustee-Council Annual Meeting weekend, bringing the University's trustees to campus and to the Sigma Phi event.
The Epsilon and Dan Mansoor, C'76, first donated such banners to the University in 1989. There were eight at that time, each representing a different college within the University. In the years since, new banners have been added as new Cornell colleges have been inaugurated or their logos were updated. This gift concept was the idea of Dan Mansoor, then the Epsilon's Director of Alumni Engagement & Philanthropy. Dan had just helped create the Sigma Phi Gift Account at Cornell, the primary development mechanism used to this day by the Epsilon.
Beyond merely explaining the donation, Rusty took the opportunity to point his audience to the many and varied connections between the Society and the University. "There are numerous such touchpoints," Rusty explained, "between Sigma Phi and Cornell. Nearly two thousand graduates since our first house opened in 1890, a dozen or more faculty members over time, several trustees (including Life Trustee Ezra Cornell, C'69, and Chairman Emeritus Bob Harrison, C'73), and scores of recipients of Oliphant and Tannenbaum Speakers Fellowships over the past half-century."
He described in particular the part played by Andrew Dickson White, G'1850, who went on to become co-founder and first president of Cornell. Fortunately for Sigma Phi, that brother remained an active Sig the rest of his life. Not only did he assist in founding the Epsilon of New York, he served as editor of The Flame as well as Chairman of the S&A from 1913-15. Rusty explained: "White deeply valued all fraternities, believing they cultivated leadership, self-governance, and enduring friendship among young men. During his presidency, he accorded them pride of place at Cornell, both physically and socially." Thank you, esteemed Brother White!
The Epsilon invites any and all who visit Cornell to stop by the Memorial Room (a medieval-style hall with hammer-beam ceiling) to view the banners and to read the permanent plaque thanking Sigma Phi!
Originally published in The Flame, the journal of Sigma Phi Fraternity, Issue 143, December 2025
Spring
Meeting
Members and friends of the Epsilon Association, Inc. are warmly invited to attend the organization’s upcoming Spring Meeting, taking place on Saturday, April 18, from9:00 AM to 1:00 PM (EDT) at the Willard Straight Hall Art Gallery (Room 413) on the campus of Cornell University.
F R I D A Y
A P R I L 1 7 – 7 : 3 0 P M
P R E - M E E T I N G D I N N E R 7:30 PM
Informal dinner the evening before
the meeting.
Food Lab Bar & Kitchen
113 North Aurora Street Ithaca, NY 14850.
S A T U R D A Y
A P R I L 1 8 – 9 : 0 0 A M – 1 0 : 3 0 A M
M E E T I N G
The meeting will begin with routine association business from
A recap of the Mid-Winter Meeting
An update on the Capital Campaign kickoff
Highlights of the significant fundraising progress achieved to date
S A T U R D A Y
A P R I L 1 8 – 1 0 : 3 0 A M – 1 : 0 0 P M
M E E T I N G
Senior members of the administration at Cornell University will join the meeting during this portion of the program to participate in the discussion and share their perspectives on the path forward.
The meeting will shift to a focused strategic discussion on the future of the active chapter
at Cornell.This session will examine the critical success factors demonstrated by chapters that have successfully returned to campus after a pause in operations
Specific steps required to restart the active chapter.
For those who are unable to attend in person, a remote participation option will be available via Microsoft Teams.
Sigma Phi has a timely opportunity to re-start strong chapter at Cornell university:
Do you have what it takes or know someone who does? Live in or near Ithaca?
This effort is already underway, and its success depends on identifying the right people early.
We are looking to connect with motivated Cornell students, as well as graduate students and young alumni in Ithaca, who can help rebuild the chapter on a strong foundation.
We welcome referrals, introductions, or self-identification from anyone who may be a fit.
What we’re looking for:
Current Cornell undergraduates (freshmen or sophomores) or incoming freshmen who may be interested in participating in the re-establishment of Sigma Phi during the 2027–28 school year. These students would be candidates to live in the chapter house during the 2027–28 school year.
Graduate students or young alumni who may be willing to assist with new member recruitment efforts and help support the early development of the chapter.
Timing matters:
Students entering Cornell this fall are actively finalizing academic and housing decisions. The window to connect with the right individuals before commitments are set is short.
Even a single introduction could make a meaningful difference.
Contact:
Glenn R. George, C’82
President, Epsilon Association, Inc.
(215) 620-0355
ggeorge001@yahoo.com
DIGITAL
Epsiloner
DIGITAL
Epsiloner
NATIONAL NEWS
2026 Convention in Burlington, VT
The Preliminary 2026 Convention weekend agenda includes:
Thursday
Welcome reception
Friday
S&A and Educational Foundation Meetings
Undergraduate Leadership Symposium
Casual dinner
Hicks Oratorical Contest
Conclave
Saturday
Annual meeting of Sigma Phi members
Afternoon activities on your own
Convention banquet
Departure brunch
Thu, Sep 24 | Sigma Phi Place
Join us on the shores of Lake Champlain in Burlington, VT for Convention 2026
Time & Location
Sep 24, 2026, 4:00 PM – Sep 27, 2026, 12:00 PM
Sigma Phi Place, 420 College St, Burlington, VT 05401, USA
Hot Off The Presses
The Fall 2025 edition of
The Epsiloner is now available!
Inside, you'll find updates from chapter leadership, alumni news, a look ahead at upcoming events, and a special remembrance honoring our brother Ken Dryden (C’66).
There’s a lot happening — and your continued support and engagement truly make a difference as we move forward. Please take a few moments to read through, and as always, don’t hesitate to reach out with questions, updates, or just to reconnect.
— Geoff Perry C’82