New York Epsilon (chartered 1953)
Alfred State College - Alfred, NY
Status: Active

During January of 1953, a fraternity was formed at the Agriculture College of Alfred and called itself Alpha Tau Fraternity. On March 28, 1953 at Wellsville, NY, Alpha Tau fraternity was initiated into Kappa Sigma Kappa national fraternity as the New York Epsilon chapter. The constitution was drawn up by the constitution committee and later rewritten and edited by Walter Rhode. Brother Rhode became the first chapter President (ref - Iris, winter 1954).

The location for the chapter's house was 273 North Main Street, Alfred, NY (September 1953 to June 1956). And later moved to 35 West University, Alfred, NY (ref - Bruce Clark KSE 1961).

During 1954, an article was submitted to KSK's Iris magazine by New York Epsilon's chapter historian, Lawrence Mallison. The article illustrated the fraternity and sorority climate at Alfred:

At this moment we are presented with the great difficulty from the administration of the New York State University, which we hope, will be settled in the near future. The administration has banned all fraternities and sororities with National affiliation because of a few which are prohibiting certain racial groups from joining. We sincerely believe that the administration will recognize that we have no discrimination in our fraternity. We have not received any official word yet so we are continuing as before (ref -Iris - Winter 1954).

On October 11, 1954, New York Epsilon Chapter of Kappa Sigma Kappa became separated from the national organization or so it appeared to Alfred State Tech. Kappa Sigma Kappa, Epsilon chapter changed its name to Kappa Sigma Epsilon. The Changing of the fraternity's name was necessary to keep the brothers and the fraternity active on Alfred's campus (ref - Bill 'Hunter' Dickerson, KSE 1961).

Today, Kappa Sigma Epsilon is a prospering and active chapter and has gained strong alumni support from within itself, NY Gamma Alumni, and Penn Alpha Alumni chapters. The rituals and history of KSK have always been, and are still a large part of the KSE chapter.

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