Since 1856, brothers of Sigma Alpha Epsilon have striven to reach the highest standards of friendship, scholarship, leadership, and service throughout their lives. Our goal is to give young men the community, culture, guidance, and tools they need to be a True Gentleman. This means having focused principles, strong convictions and the strength to always do the right thing—as a True Gentleman rises above his peers to be a guiding light today and tomorrow.

Brothers of Sigma Alpha Epsilon live their lives according to our Creed, The True Gentleman.

The True Gentleman is the man whose conduct proceeds from good will and an acute sense of propriety, and whose self-control is equal to all emergencies; who does not make the poor man conscious of his poverty, the obscure man of his obscurity, or any man of his inferiority or deformity; who is himself humbled if necessity compels him to humble another; who does not flatter wealth, cringe before power, or boast of his own possessions or achievements; who speaks with frankness but always with sincerity and sympathy; whose deed follows his word; who thinks of the rights and feelings of others, rather than his own; and who appears well in any company, a man with whom honor is sacred and virtue safe.

-John Walter Wayland