The Delta Beta Chapter of Sigma Alpha Mu was founded as a colony in 1987 at American University in Washington, D.C., and received its full charter from the National Fraternity on January 28th, 1989.
Since its founding, Delta Beta has upheld the fraternity’s core principles of brotherhood, leadership, scholarship, and service, contributing meaningfully to the Sigma Alpha Mu experience on campus and beyond.
Our Mission
In alignment with the national mission of Sigma Alpha Mu, the Delta Beta Chapter is committed to fostering the personal growth and development of its members, strengthening lifelong fraternal bonds, and promoting engagement within the broader community. These values have guided the chapter across generations and continue to shape its purpose today.
The Delta Beta Chapter is dedicated to extending this mission beyond the undergraduate years. Through alumni engagement, mentorship, service, and philanthropy, Delta Beta alumni remain actively connected to one another and to the fraternity’s enduring ideals. Our chapter serves as a bridge between past, present, and future brothers—preserving our history while supporting the continued success of Sigma Alpha Mu at American University.
Whether newly graduated or long removed from campus, all Delta Beta alumni are encouraged to remain involved, stay connected, and help advance the mission and values of Sigma Alpha Mu.
Our Creed
“To foster and maintain among its sons a spirit of fraternity, a spirit of mutual moral aid and support; to instill and maintain in the hearts of its sons love for and loyalty to Alma Mater and its ideals; to inculcate among its sons such ideals as will result in actions worthy of the highest precepts of true manhood, democracy, and humanity.”
National Fraternity Support
Pictured Above: Executive Director Emeritus William “Bill” Schwartz
From its earliest days as a colony in 1986, the Delta Beta Chapter of Sigma Alpha Mu benefited from the guidance, encouragement, and unwavering support of three individuals whose belief in our chapter helped make our success possible: Executive Director Bill Schwartz, Past Supreme Prior Joel Goldstein, and our dedicated Chapter Advisor, Geno Schnell.
Bill and Joel provided invaluable leadership and support from the National Fraternity headquarters in Carmel, Indiana, helping guide Delta Beta through the challenges and opportunities of building a new chapter. Closer to home, Geno served as a trusted advisor, mentor, and friend, working directly with our founding brothers and helping to shape the culture, values, and traditions that would define Delta Beta for generations to come.
Together, their dedication played a pivotal role in helping Delta Beta grow from a small group of founding brothers into a fully chartered chapter of Sigma Alpha Mu. Their belief in our vision, coupled with their mentorship, friendship, and steadfast support, helped lay the foundation upon which our chapter was built.
Bill Schwartz passed away in 2018, leaving behind a lasting legacy of service to Sigma Alpha Mu and the countless brothers whose lives he touched. We invite you to read the heartfelt tribute to Bill written by Joel Goldstein, which not only honors Bill’s extraordinary life and contributions, but also reflects the character, leadership, and devotion to brotherhood that all three of these men exemplified throughout their service to Delta Beta and Sigma Alpha Mu.
Read Joel’s tribute to Bill Schwartz:
https://sam.org/you-got-a-minute/
About Sigma Alpha Mu National Fraternity
The Stalwart Eight
On November 26, 1909 eight sophomores from the College of the City Of New York appeared at a meeting to decide on a plan for class redemption. Discovering they held many ideals in common, the eight became inspired and a new Fraternity was formed. Two years later Sigma Alpha Mu began to grow and those eight men, Lester Cole (né Cohen), Hyman Jacobson, Adolph I. Fabis, Samuel Gaines (né Ginsburg), Abram N. Kerner, Jacob Kaplan, Ira N. Lind, David D. Levinson are inscribed in the Fraternity’s history.
Sigma Alpha Mu was founded in 1909 at the College of the City of New York as a fraternity of Jewish men; the organization has been open to all men of good moral character since 1953. With its International Headquarters located in Indianapolis, IN, the fraternity currently has 56 collegiate chapters and colonies and over 55,000 living alumni throughout the United States and Canada.
