Fraternity History

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The Rich Heritage of America’s Foremost Fraternity for Students of Business

In the autumn of 1906, there were only a handful of business schools in the United States. One such school—The School of Commerce, Accounts, and Finance—enrolled 300 students as part of New York University. Four members of the Class of 1909—Alexander Frank Makay, Alfred Moysello, Henry Albert Tienken, and Harold Valentine Jacobs—started a fraternity for business majors that became what is known today as the International Fraternity of Delta Sigma Pi.

The response to their idea was positive and immediate. The Fraternity’s constitution was drafted and adopted in the fall of 1907. Then the first officers were elected and November 7, 1907 was declared Founders’ Day. In April of 1908, the name Delta Sigma Pi was adopted and bylaws were approved, with the Fraternity’s badge and colors approved shortly thereafter. By 1911, the Fraternity was publishing a newsletter that evolved into the official publication still in circulation today, The DELTASIG. In 1912, the Delta Sigma Pi Scholarship Key Award was established and continues to the present day. Delta Sigma Pi chartered its second chapter—at the Northwestern School of Commerce in Chicago—in 1914 at its national convention, Grand Chapter Congress.

After two world wars and the Great Depression, Delta Sigma Pi renewed its expansion efforts, establishing a permanent national headquarters to handle administrative services for the organization and a Foundation to support educational endeavors and offer valuable financial support to members through scholarships. Social change in the 1960s and 1970s led the Fraternity to examine its ideals and, in 1975, Delta Sigma Pi became the first business fraternity to initiate women. Since that time, Delta Sigma Pi has continued to expand and refine its operations, determined to equip members for future professional and personal success and is proud of its reputation as the world’s foremost fraternity for business majors.

Today, nearly 300 universities and colleges in the United States, Canada and Mexico are a part of the Delta Sigma Pi network and history.

Learn more about our history on the National Fraternity website.