3,000th Initiate at Epsilon Xi
Chapter & Alumni News
76-year-old Ed Meek was knighted as the 3,000th initiate of Epsilon Xi (Mississippi) in January after nearly six decades of continuous support and friendship to Sigma Nu. Meek was a candidate briefly in 1958 but dropped his candidacy due to costs. At the time, Meek was paying for his tuition himself and initially wasn’t even sure if he’d be able to attend the University of Mississippi. “I was just having fun with everybody else until my first bill came for something like three hundred dollars,” Meek said. “I had to pay my own way through college and couldn’t see how to make that work.”
But the friendships made during his time with the chapter were certainly life-long. “Everyone who knows Ed knows that he considered himself a Sigma Nu every day of his adult life, and we felt the same way about Ed,” said Alumni Advisor John Green (Mississippi). “The question was, how do we get him formally initiated?” The answer came when the chapter petitioned the High Council for a non-matriculate initiation. Once granted, the chapter voted unanimously to initiate Meek and bestow upon him the honor of being the chapter’s 3,000th initiate.
“I have always felt like I was a Sigma Nu,” Meek said. “Some of my best friends in the country have remained Sigma Nus even though I was just there three weeks. The bond that developed has always been there, with friends like Trent (Lott) and Carson Hughes. It became the brotherhood for me even though I didn’t go through the process like the others,” Meek said. “The chapter is not doing anything for Ed,” said alumnus Carson Hughes (Mississippi) of the initiation. “Ed is honoring the chapter by accepting this.”