About the Chapter

The Beta Gamma Chapter of Sigma Tau Gamma at Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio began in 1959 with 24 Founding Fathers. The chapter has initiated over 400 members since its inception.

Chapter History

The founding of Beta Gamma Chapter came of desire; a desire to get something more out of college than academic knowledge. College is a time of growth for many young men, and the Founding Fathers chose to come together and share this growth through the bond of Sigma Tau Gamma. Founder Rajah James came to Youngstown State, hoping to join a fraternity, and decided that he was not a good fit for any of them.

During the beginning of the second term, Founder Mike Ray, Youngstown State, and James were serving on a committee together, and James brought up to Ray the topic of fraternities. James was interested in joining the local chapter of a well-known national fraternity whose numbers had recently dropped. James’ reasoning was that since they had a low membership, he could join and then bring the chapter more in line with his vision of the ideal fraternity. Ray suggested that James speaks with the Student Activities office on campus. Leaving the meeting, James thought nothing of what Ray had said. Directly in front of him next to the stairs, he saw a table with a young man representing Sigma Tau Gamma Fraternity.

The next months were hard. One of the biggest stumbling blocks was membership retention. As the group of three gathered, they grew almost immediately to eight. The number held at eight for several months; however, the group kept diligently working and gathering numbers.

On May 20, 2000, 21 refounding fathers of the Beta Gamma Chapter were initiated into the brotherhood of Sigma Tau Gamma.

Chapter Funds

A Chapter Fund is a restricted account from the Sigma Tau Gamma Foundation. In this case, the restriction is that the funds and earnings on the investment of the funds may be used only for a particular chapter, meaning that if you donate to your chapter’s fund, it may only be used for your chapter.

Chapter Funds may be used to:

• Award scholarships based on academic and leadership criteria
• Technology grants for purchase and upgrade of chapter computer technology
• Educational facility grants to the selected chapter
• Leadership education grants for participation in institutes, seminars, and conventions.

The Foundation manages the fund. This management includes fund accounting, investing, and preparing required reports for the Internal Revenue Service. The policy of the Foundation Board of Trustees is to involve chapter alumni association leaders in the creation of criteria, formation of program priorities and selection of grant recipients.

Submitting Changes to the Chapter’s History

Any member of the fraternity and/or chapter is welcome to submit a request to update/change/correct information listed within the chapter history portion of the page. submissions will be accepted in two ways: should a correction need to be made, please submit the entire sentence/paragraph, that needs to be updated with the correction highlighted in yellow or in a different color. If something new or updated needs to be added, please submit the entire text that needs to be added and/or revised with the new information highlighted in yellow.

This information should be submitted to noblemen@sigtau.org, where is will be reviewed by HQ Staff. Your submission will not be acknowledged unless it has been added to the website. It is very important that the chapter’s history accurately and objectively reflects the chapter, so all corrections, additions, and revisions should be reviewed by other members of your chapter before being submitted.