About the Chapter

The Gamma Chi Chapter at Michigan Technological University in Houghton, Michigan, was established in April of 1972, and officially recognized in 1974. The chapter began with 38 Founding Fathers with over 650 men being initiated into the Gamma Chi chapter since its inception.

Fun Facts

• The chapter house has a room called the Presidential Room; because President Theodore Roosevelt stayed at the house when he was touring the mining communities of Michigan.
• President Roosevelt left the house in a rage after the owner at the time, Richard M. Edwards drunkenly fell into one of the house’s four fireplaces.
• Had the highest aggregate fraternity GPA on campus from spring 2015-fall 2016
• Won 2015 Greek Week Dodgeball and Pool-Games Tournaments
• Won Class-A Homecoming and cardboard boat races in 2016
• They compete yearly in Winter Carnival and Snow Statues

Chapter History

The Gamma Chi chapter was chartered on April 20^th, 1974, by Fred Guenther. The chapter occupies “the big blue house on College Ave, with the golden retrievers,” where it has been located since its inception. The house is one of the oldest and grandest in the area, originally built in the summer of 1889, by a woman named Anna Smith. The house was owned and furnished by a prominent mining engineer, one Richard M. Edwards, in the early 20^th century. Edwards was a prominent member of the Houghton community; it was known as the Edwards Mansion during the mining boom era. The house fell into relative disrepair, passing from owner to owner throughout the majority of the 1900s until the fraternity purchased and began restoring it.

Today, the house is a major point of pride for the brothers and alumni. Brothers take regular care of the original interior wood paneling, floors and doors, and are continually working on projects to improve the appearance, energy efficiency, and structural integrity of the house–all while respecting the original design. The Gamma Chi chapter views their house as they do everything in life, an opportunity to put on display the six principles of Sigma Tau Gamma. The Principle of Excellence is strengthened by pride in chapter history and enables them to succeed in a broad range of activities campus-wide. The chapter consistently scores in the top tier of fraternities by recruitment and GPA metrics and excels in a variety of athletic events.

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.