The collection contains financial records, including budgets, cancelled checks, receipts, invoices, pass books, investment records, bills, and accountant forms; house improvement documentation such as architectural plans and sketches, photographs, roofing samples, work orders, and safety inspection records; official documents related to insurance claims and forms, lawsuits, and ground leases signed with the Trustees of the University; Alpha Omega House Corporation records including meeting agendas, minutes, and correspondence with National organization and Stanford University; fraternity correspondence, including letters between alums, fraternity members; and publications such as chapter centennial celebration materials, STANFORD DAILY clippings, national news clippings, and copies of THE MAGAZINE OF SIGMA CHI. Additional materials not fully processed include completed surveys done at the 100th anniversary reunion, publications, correspondence, and photographs (1933-76).

The Alpha Omega Chapter of Sigma Chi is one of Stanford's oldest fraternities, chartered in 1891 shortly after the opening of the University. In 1936, a collection of Sigma Chi alumni banded together to form the Alpha Omega House Corporation, a non-profit that both financed the construction of the current chapter house (finished in 1939) and continues to lease the land from the University. In 1965, the chapter was suspended from the National Sigma Chi Organization after pledging an African American student. A year later, the chapter deactivated in protest over National's discriminatory policies and became Sigma Chi Omega, a local fraternity, which it remained for eight years. In 1974, the chapter re-affiliated with the national organization. In 1991, Sigma Chi celebrated the centennial of both the University and the chapter. In 2002, facing financial pressures, the House Corporation proposed handing the house over to the University but a new Board was installed in 2003, and proceeded to fundraise over 2.5 million dollars to refurbish the house, a project that concluded in 2006.

15.25 Linear Feet (29 boxes)

All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from, or otherwise use collection materials must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, California 94304-6064. Consent is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission from the copyright owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright owner, heir(s) or assigns. See: http://library.stanford.edu/depts/spc/pubserv/permissions.html.

This collection is open for research; materials must be requested at least 48 hours in advance of intended use.