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), academics, 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.
2024 Merit Award Winners
Alpha 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 #700 – Caleb A. Covarrubias (Houston)
- Alpha #701 – Emilio D. Ferrara, IV (Georgia)
- Alpha #702 – G. Dare Lovett, IV (Oklahoma State)
- Alpha #703 – Charles A. McKenzie (Louisiana State)
- Alpha #704 – Gareth L. Morton (Central Oklahoma)
- Alpha #705 – Cole M. Murdoch (UC Davis)
- Alpha #706 – Rafael Ortiz, III (Arizona State)
- Alpha #707 – Bailey S. Powledge (Arizona State)
- Alpha #708 – Brandon D. Vogt (Southeast Missouri State)
- Alpha #709 – Christian E. Winingar (Missouri S&T)
Athlete of the Year
The Fraternity recognizes the individual who has demonstrated excellence in the area of Athletics.
- J. Addison Beam (Appalachian State)
Scholar of the Year
The Fraternity recognizes the individual who has demonstrated excellence in the area of Scholarship.
- Emilio D. Ferrara, IV (Georgia)
Man of the Year
The Fraternity recognizes the individual who has demonstrated all-around excellence in the areas of Leadership, Chapter and Campus Involvement, and Scholarship.
- Emilio D. Ferrara, IV (Georgia)
2024 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.
Academic 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 (e.g. Spring and Fall 2023 grades). Winners from the most recent year are below.
Gallaher Cup
This award is given to the chapter with the highest GPA of all Sigma Nu chapters nationwide.
- Gamma Beta (Northwestern) – GPA of 3.81 in Fall 2023
Silver Cup
This award is given to the chapter with the 2nd highest GPA of all Sigma Nu chapters nationwide.
- Sigma (Vanderbilt) – GPA of 3.78 in Fall 2023
- Gamma Omicron (Washington in St. Louis) - GPA of 3.78 in Fall 2023
Bronze Cup
This award is given to the chapter with the 3rd highest GPA of all Sigma Nu chapters nationwide.
- Delta Gamma (Columbia) – GPA of 3.76 in Fall 2023
Academic Commendation
This award is given to the chapter with the highest positive point differential over its respective local IFC GPA.
- Zeta Xi (UC Davis) – +0.66 over IFC in Fall 2023
Academic Merit
This is the award given to the chapter with the highest positive point differential over its respective local All-Male GPA.
- Zeta Xi (UC Davis) – +0.77 over All-Male in Fall 2023
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 2023 calendar year.
- Beta Iota (Mount Union)
- Delta Gamma (Columbia)
- Delta Theta (Knox)
- Epsilon Alpha (Arizona)
- Epsilon Beta (Drury)
- Epsilon Delta (Wyoming)
- Epsilon Pi (UCLA)
- Epsilon Sigma (Rhodes)
- Eta Omicron (Wofford)
- Gamma Beta (Northwestern)
- Gamma Omicron (Washington in St. Louis)
- Iota Rho (Charleston)
- Lambda Delta (Minnesota State)
- Lambda Upsilon (Cal State Fullerton)
- Mu Kappa (Southeast Missouri State)
- Nu Alpha (Arkansas - Fort Smith)
- Sigma (Vanderbilt)
- Zeta Nu (Montana State)
- Zeta Omicron (North Texas)
- Zeta Xi (UC Davis)
Academic 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.
- Zeta Gamma (Kent State) – GPA increase from 2.06 to 3.01 (+0.95)
Manpower Awards
Each year, Sigma Nu Fraternity 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) – 116 men
- Beta Eta (Indiana) – 139 men
- Beta Theta (Auburn) – 199 men
- Beta Zeta (Purdue) – 135 men
- Delta (South Carolina) – 163 men
- Delta Epsilon (Oklahoma) – 200 men
- Delta Phi (Maryland) – 120 men
- Delta Rho (Colorado State) – 113 men
- Epsilon Alpha (Arizona) – 132 men
- Epsilon Epsilon (Oklahoma State) – 140 men
- Epsilon Eta (Tennessee) – 180 men
- Epsilon Lambda (Utah) – 115 men
- Epsilon Mu (Butler) – 107 men
- Epsilon Pi (UCLA) – 140 men
- Epsilon Rho (Michigan State) – 109 men
- Epsilon Xi (Mississippi) – 274 men
- Eta Tau (Texas State) – 112 men
- Eta Zeta (Louisiana Tech) – 116 men
- Gamma Iota (Kentucky) – 120 men
- Gamma Kappa (Colorado) – 181 men
- Gamma Mu (Illinois) – 109 men
- Gamma Nu (Michigan) – 108 men
- Gamma Upsilon (Arkansas) – 333 men
- Gamma Zeta (Oregon) – 169 men
- Iota Delta (James Madison) – 125 men
- Iota Theta (Southern Methodist) – 125 men
- Kappa Pi (Cal Poly San Luis Obispo) – 112 men
- Lambda Epsilon (Texas Christian) – 170 men
- Mu (Georgia) – 145 men
- Phi (Louisiana State) – 178 men
- Rho (Missouri) – 148 men
- Theta (Alabama) – 155 men
- Theta Kappa (Georgia Southern) – 103 men
- Theta Rho (Illinois State) – 106 men
- Zeta Pi (Texas Tech) – 116 men
- Zeta Upsilon (Arizona State) – 117 men
This award is given to the chapters that have achieved a manpower of above 80 men.
- Beta (Virginia) – 89 men
- Beta Tau (North Carolina State) – 92 men
- Eta Omicron (Wofford) – 83 men
- Kappa Zeta (Villanova) – 96 men
- Mu Kappa (Southeast Missouri State) – 95 men
- Nu (Kansas) – 97 men
- Psi (North Carolina) – 84 men
- Theta Zeta (Clemson) – 90 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 Beta (DePauw) – 33% increase
- Beta Chi (Stanford) – 33% increase
- Beta Iota (Mount Union) – 35% increase
- Beta Psi (UC Berkeley) – 62% increase
- Beta Zeta (Purdue) – 30% increase
- Delta Alpha (Case Western Reserve) – 33% increase
- Delta Kappa (Delaware) – 47% increase
- Delta Sigma (Carnegie Mellon) – 63% increase
- Delta Tau (Oregon State) – 32% increase
- Epsilon Alpha (Arizona) – 31% increase
- Epsilon Lambda (Utah) – 31% increase
- Epsilon Omicron (USC) – 72% increase
- Eta Beta (East Carolina) – 33% increase
- Eta Nu (Louisiana at Lafayette) – 35% increase
- Eta Rho (Western Kentucky) – 38% increase
- Eta Theta (North Dakota State) – 36% increase
- Gamma (Duke) – 127% increase
- Iota Delta (James Madison) – 29% increase
- Iota Rho (Charleston) – 41% increase
- Kappa Delta (Duquesne) – 30% increase
- Kappa Lambda (Akron) – 44% increase
- Lambda Epsilon (Texas Christian) – 34% increase
- Lambda Gamma (Eastern Illinois) – 57% increase
- Mu Beta (Alabama in Huntsville) – 26% increase
- Mu Chi (Lynchburg) – 83% increase
- Mu Iota (Hartford) – 74% increase
- Mu Pi (Jefferson) – 31% increase
- Nu (Kansas) – 37% increase
- Theta Eta (Northern Illinois) – 50% increase
Regent's Award for Manpower Excellence
This award is given to the chapters that rank either 1st or in the top 15% in IFC manpower on their respective campus during the 2023 calendar year.
- Delta Mu (Stetson)
- Delta Rho (Colorado State)
- Epsilon Eta (Tennessee)
- Epsilon Rho (Michigan State)
- Eta Beta (East Carolina)
- Eta Tau (Texas State)
- Eta Zeta (Louisiana Tech)
- Gamma Mu (Illinois)
- Gamma Zeta (Oregon)
- Kappa Epsilon (Appalachian State)
- Lambda Epsilon (Texas Christian)
- Mu (Georgia)
- Mu Kappa (Southeast Missouri State)
- Nu Alpha (Arkansas - Fort Smith)
- Phi (Louisiana State)
- Psi (North Carolina)
- Rho (Missouri)
- Theta Pi (West Georgia)
- Zeta Omicron (North Texas)
- Zeta Theta (Presbyterian)
- Zeta Xi (UC Davis)
Service and Philanthropy Awards
Each year, Sigma Nu Fraternity 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.
- Iota Beta (Virginia Wesleyan) – 53 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) – $2,093 per man