| Auburn's first fraternity, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, came to
life secretly at night in a cornfield behind Old Main to escape the disapproving
eyes of faculty members in the summer of 1878. The idea spread among
the students, and before 1880 both Alpha Tau Omega and Phi Delta Theta
chapters also had been formed. The SAE's disbanded from 1880 to 1886,
leaving the other two as the oldest continuing fraternities on campus.
By 1883, when Kappa Alpha was chartered, the college had lifted its ban
on fraternities. In 1897, Auburn's president himself, William LeRoy
Broun (with mustache and goatee), posed with his fellow SAEs for this picture
printed in the first Glomerata. Other widely known faculty members
shown were Bolling Hall Crenshaw (middle row, third from left); to the
right of Broun, Robert J. Trammell; then John Jenkins Wilmore. A
future electrical engineering, professor, W.W. Hill, sat in front of Broun's
left hand. -- Photo: AU Special Collections |
