Sigma Pi

Sigma Pi (ΣΠ) is a collegiate fraternity in North America. As of 2021, it had more than 5,000 undergraduate members and over 118,000 alumni. The fraternity is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee.

Founded on February 26, 1897, at Vincennes University by William R Kennedy, James T Kingsbury, George M Patterson, and Rolin R James, the group was initially known as Tau Phi Delta (ΤΦΔ). In 1907, the fraternity was renamed Sigma Pi. This change was instigated by Robert George Patterson (no relation to founder George M Patterson), a student at Ohio State University. Patterson had wanted to join the Sigma Pi literary society at Illinois College in Jacksonville, Illinois, but after his request to expand the society to OSU was declined, he approached Tau Phi Delta members, claiming to represent a historic fraternity called Sigma Pi that dated to the 18th century. Tau Phi Delta accepted Patterson's invitation to merge and adopted the name Sigma Pi. Later, Patterson's "history" of Sigma Pi was shown to be false, but the organization kept the name.

Sigma Pi oversees several charitable programs, including the Altruistic Campus Experience (ACE), and maintains the Sigma Pi Educational Foundation "to assist needy and deserving students to complete their education, and to aid aged or disabled former students who are in need or worthy of assistance."