Our Story
To Better The Man
Four words that have carried Alpha Sigma Phi since 1845. They are not a slogan we put on a shirt. They are the standard we hold each other to, and the reason the Mu Chapter looks the way it does today.
A house built on the guy next to you
Alpha Sigma Phi is one of the ten oldest fraternities in the country, founded at Yale in 1845 and known to its members simply as the Old Gal. The Mu Chapter has been at the University of Washington since 1912, and in the 114 years since, it has never once gone dark.
What that history means day to day is simpler than it sounds. We are a group of guys who take our work seriously and do not take ourselves too seriously. We are competitive in the classroom, loud on game day, and out in the mountains most weekends. Nobody here is trying to be the same person as the guy next to him, and that is the point.
Our values are Silence, Charity, Purity, Honor, and Patriotism. Read plainly in 2026, they add up to a simple expectation: leave the chapter, the campus, and yourself better than you found them.
Fourteen names on a page
On May 20, 1912, fourteen men signed the founding roll of the Mu Chapter of Alpha Sigma Phi at the University of Washington. That document still exists, and their handwriting is still legible. Christopher Carroll Blaisdell signed first.
For generations after, the chapter did what good chapters do. It graduated doctors, lawyers, engineers, and businessmen. In 1920 it built a house at 4554 19th Avenue Northeast, one of the oldest chapter houses on Greek Row, and it built the alumni network that still answers the phone when an undergraduate calls today.
In 2022 that alumni network raised more than $1.1 million and took the Old Gal down to the studs. New wiring, new plumbing, seismic work, a new kitchen, new roof, both residential floors rebuilt from scratch. It was, by every account, the best the house had looked in a century.
Three years later it caught fire.
What we built back
Just before 4 a.m. on July 5, 2025, a fire started on an upper deck of the house and moved into the attic. More than 80 Seattle firefighters responded and it went to two alarms. The roof, the attic, and the top floor were severely damaged, and water from fighting the fire came down through four levels of the building. Investigators believe fireworks started it. The house was declared uninhabitable, and dozens of brothers were displaced overnight.
Every single person got out. Nobody was hurt. That is the only part of that night that was ever going to matter.
What happened next is the part we would point a rushee to. A chapter is not a building. It is the people who show up when the building is gone, and this one showed up. Brothers took each other in. Alumni went back to work. The chapter kept its calendar and kept its grades, and one year later walked into the national convention in Dallas and was named the best large chapter in the country.
Today we live a block down the same street at 4508 19th Avenue Northeast, in a house that is bigger than the one we lost. We have put an enormous amount of work into it, and it is genuinely ours now. Every room in it was chosen and set up by guys who are still living here. The phoenix has been our symbol since the 1900s, and in 2025 we found out exactly what it meant.
From everywhere, in one house
We have brothers from all over the country. Washington and the West Coast make up a good share of the house, but the roll runs through the Midwest, the East Coast, the Southwest, and abroad. For a lot of guys, walking into rush was the first time they knew anybody in Seattle at all.
What holds it together is not that everyone is the same. It is that everyone is around. The fire pit in the back court gets lit on ordinary Tuesdays. There is always somebody in the kitchen at midnight, somebody looking for a fourth for beer dye, and somebody trying to talk three people into a 4 a.m. trailhead start.
If you are the kind of person who wants a group that will actually pick up the phone, that is the part of this we would sell you on hardest.
The mountains are two hours away, so we go
One of the real advantages of this school is that the Cascades are close enough to hit before a Monday class, and a serious chunk of the house takes that seriously. We have brothers who ski, splitboard, hike, climb, and mountaineer, including guys who summit the volcanoes every season.
The practical version of that: you will never have to find partners. There is a group chat for it, there is gear in the house, and there is always somebody who has done the route before and will tell you what you actually need. We have put the chapter flag on a lot of summits.
Whether you have led a rope team or you have never owned a pair of crampons, somebody here will take you out.
Charity is one of our five values, not an afterthought
Alpha Sigma Phi's national philanthropic partners are RAINN, the largest anti-sexual-violence organization in the country, and Homes For Our Troops, which builds specially adapted homes for severely injured post-9/11 veterans. Both are causes the Old Gal has stood behind nationally for years, and both are causes we raise for here.
On campus that turns into philanthropy weeks, events run with houses across Greek Row, and service hours that the chapter tracks rather than guesses at.
We are not going to pretend philanthropy is the loudest part of a fraternity. We will say that a chapter that only shows up for itself is not one worth joining.
Second in the school, first among wet houses
Over the last three quarters, the Mu Chapter has posted the second highest Dean's List percentage of any fraternity at the University of Washington, and the highest of any wet house. That does not happen by accident. It happens because the guys here study together and because the house is set up so that you can actually get work done in it.
The chapter also puts real money behind it. This year we awarded roughly $35,000 in scholarships to our own brothers, funded through the chapter and our alumni. That is money that goes directly against tuition for guys who earned it.
The internship list runs from Amazon to FIFA clinical research, along with finance, consulting, aerospace, startups, and research labs on campus. When recruiting season comes around, the guy who did the interview last year is sitting in the next room, and he will do a mock with you.
Chef-cooked lunch and dinner, and a Costco run every week
Our private chef, Naomi, cooks lunch and dinner every weekday. It is genuinely good food, it is fresh, and there are always leftovers in the fridge for whoever missed a meal. On top of that a Costco run lands every week, so the house is never out of snacks, coffee, or whatever got voted onto the list.
The new house gives you room to pick your speed. There are quiet rooms to study in, common spaces to hang in, and a back court that holds the whole chapter for a fire, a barbecue, or a long night of beer dye. Our socials, exchanges, and game days are a real part of life here, and we would be lying if we said otherwise.
We are a wet house, and we take the responsibility that comes with that seriously. Risk management, sober monitors, and looking after the guy who needs looking after are non-negotiable.
Game days, banners, and a costume closet with no bottom
Saturdays in the fall belong to the Huskies, and the banner on the front of the house gets painted for every home game that matters. Whatever the theme is, somebody in this house will commit to it far past the point of reason.
Between the game days, the philanthropy events, the exchanges, and the annual traditions nobody can quite explain the origin of, there is almost always something on the calendar. You will not spend four years here wondering what to do on a Friday.
What It Costs
We would rather be straightforward about money than have you find out later. The short version: living in the house is cheaper than the dorms, and you eat considerably better.
Cheaper than the dorms
Room and board at the chapter house comes in below UW dorm rates, and that number already includes chef-cooked lunch and dinner every weekday, the weekly Costco run, utilities, and internet.
Direct and indirect costs
Direct costs are your dues and your room and board. Indirect costs are the ordinary ones: formal, letters, a few event tickets a year. We will walk you through the actual line items before you ever sign anything.
Payment plans, and real scholarships
We offer payment plans, and we mean it. Money should not be the reason a good guy cannot join. On top of that the chapter awarded about $35,000 in scholarships to brothers this year.
History & Accomplishments
The Old Gal
Alpha Sigma Phi has been around since 1845. The Mu Chapter has been at Washington since 1912. Here is where we come from, who came before us, and what this chapter has won.
Founded at Yale in 1845
On December 6, 1845, three Yale sophomores named Louis Manigault, Stephen Ormsby Rhea, and Horace Spangler Weiser founded Alpha Sigma Phi as a secret sophomore society of poets, athletes, and scholars. It is now the tenth oldest men's fraternity in the United States.
Members call it the Old Gal. Our colors are cardinal and stone, our symbol is the phoenix, and our open motto is Causa Latet Vis Est Notissima, which translates to "the cause is hidden, the results well known." The phoenix is not decorative. Alpha Sigma Phi went dark at Yale and was brought back in the early 1900s, and the bird has stood for that ever since.
Twice in the twentieth century the fraternity grew by absorbing others outright. Phi Pi Phi merged into Alpha Sigma Phi in 1939, and Alpha Kappa Pi followed on September 6, 1946. Alpha Gamma Upsilon later joined them. Each is still honored today in the name of one of the fraternity's chapter awards.
Brothers Who Came Before
Alpha Sigma Phi has initiated a lot of men in 181 years. A few of them you have heard of.
- Warren Buffett Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. Joined Alpha Sigma Phi's Omicron chapter at the University of Pennsylvania.
- Ratan Tata Chairman of the Tata Group. Iota chapter, Cornell.
- Vincent Price Actor, the father of the horror film. Alpha chapter, Yale.
- Tom Watson Eight-time major champion golfer. Tau chapter, Stanford.
- Andrew Dickson White First president of Cornell University. Alpha chapter, Yale.
- John Kasich Governor of Ohio and United States Representative. Zeta chapter, Ohio State.
- Lawrence Eagleburger United States Secretary of State. Kappa chapter, Wisconsin.
- Samuel Bodman United States Secretary of Energy. Iota chapter, Cornell.
- Chuck Feeney Co-founder of Duty Free Shoppers who gave away nearly his entire fortune. Iota chapter, Cornell.
- Allan Alcorn Atari engineer who built PONG. Nu chapter, California.
114 years at Washington
The Mu Chapter petitioned in January 1912 and was installed on May 20, 1912 by Carl B. Croson of the Beta chapter. In the 114 years since, Mu has never gone dark. That is rarer than it sounds. Most chapters this old have a gap somewhere in the record, and we do not.
For most of that run our home was the Old Gal, a house built in 1920 at 4554 19th Avenue Northeast and one of the oldest chapter houses on UW's Greek Row. After the 2025 fire we moved a block down the same street to 4508 19th Avenue Northeast, into a larger house that the chapter has spent the time since making its own.
A Chapter Timeline
The moments that made the Mu Chapter what it is.
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1845
Alpha Sigma Phi is founded at Yale College
Three sophomores start a secret society on December 6. It becomes the tenth oldest fraternity in the country.
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1912
The Mu Chapter is installed at Washington
Fourteen men sign the founding roll on May 20. Christopher Carroll Blaisdell signs first.
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1920
The Old Gal is built
The chapter house goes up at 4554 19th Avenue Northeast and becomes the chapter's home for more than a century.
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1953
Bob Houbregs takes Washington to the Final Four
A Mu brother leads the Huskies to the only Final Four in program history and is named national player of the year.
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1990
At the time, the largest bequest in University of Washington history
Mu brother Howard L. Kleinoeder, class of 1940, leaves the University of Washington a $6 million endowment for medical research and education.
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1980 to 2020
Six Grand Senior President's Cups
Mu is named the best large chapter in the nation in 1980, 1982, 1984, 1986, 2018, and 2020.
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2022
A full renovation of the house
A capital campaign raises more than $1.1 million to rebuild the house from the wiring up, including seismic work, plumbing, the kitchen, and both residential floors.
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2025
Fire on the Fourth of July weekend
An early morning fire, believed to have been started by fireworks, severely damages the roof, attic, and top floor. More than 80 firefighters respond. Every brother gets out safely.
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2025
A new home on the same street
The chapter moves a block down 19th Avenue Northeast into a larger house and rebuilds it into something of its own.
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2026
The best chapter in the nation
At the 58th Grand Chapter in Dallas, Mu wins the Grand Senior President's Cup for large campuses. It is the seventh in chapter history.
Still showing up, decades later
Bob Houbregs is the name every Husky should know. A Mu brother, he led Washington to its only Final Four appearance in 1953, was a consensus first-team All-American, and remains the only Husky ever named national player of the year. He went third overall in the 1953 NBA draft and was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 1987.
Howard L. Kleinoeder, class of 1940, went from Seattle to the Navy in the Second World War to the presidency of the American International Marine Agency. When he died in 1990 he left the University of Washington a $6 million bequest to endow medical research and education. At the time it was the largest bequest the university had ever received.
Our alumni network is not ceremonial. It funds the scholarships we award, it staffs the alumni board, and it is the reason an undergraduate here can cold call a brother in almost any industry and get a callback.
The best chapter in the nation
Grand Chapter is Alpha Sigma Phi's supreme legislative gathering, held every other summer. In 2026 in Dallas, the Mu Chapter was awarded the Grand Senior President's Cup for large campuses, the honor given to the chapter that best exemplifies the ideals and purpose of the fraternity among all large chapters in North America.
Put plainly, out of every Alpha Sigma Phi chapter on a large campus on the continent, we were named the best one. It is the seventh Cup in Mu Chapter history, after 1980, 1982, 1984, 1986, 2018, and 2020.
Winning it once is an achievement. Winning it seven times, across more than forty years and three generations of brothers, is a statement about what this chapter is.
What We Study
More than thirty majors are represented in the house. The heaviest concentrations are in business, engineering, premed, and prelaw, which means that whatever you are trying to get into, somebody here has already done the prerequisites and kept the notes.
Contact
Come Meet Us
Rush is the easiest part of this. Text or call, send us a DM, or just come by the house. If you have a question about cost, academics, or what a week here actually looks like, ask it directly.
The Chapter House
Come by