Parents

Welcome Parents!

If you are the parent of a current member, new member, or potential member here at the Sigma Phi Epsilon - Washington Beta chapter at the University of Washington, this page will serve to answer many of your questions and/or steer you to the correct person for any remaining unanswered question. Please feel free to reach out to any of our Executive Board Members at any time for questions that you still have, we will respond to you as soon as we have an answer.

Click on one of the links below for more information about our local fraternity, the Washington Beta Chapter. For information about the national fraternity, click here.

FAQs

  • The fraternity does own its own parking lot that is apart of the adjacent property. Parking is $250 per quarter and is available on a first-come, first-serve basis. There is also plenty of street parking around Greek Row but spots are never guaranteed and are usually filled.

  • The biggest thing here is coordination with your roommates. If all of you bring fridges and couches and desks there will be no room in your room, so coordinate who brings what. We will be sending out a message with rooming assignments prior to move in. It’s also important to remember that each room in the SigEp house is already furnished with a bed and mattress, a wardrobe and drawer chest, and a private desk. TIP – generally there are plenty of couches around the house that you can snag for your rooms. Fridges are great for personal storage of food.

  • We have three washers and three dryers that are free of charge for members to use. TIP – laundry supplies are not provided by the house, so be sure to buy your own HE detergent and dryer sheets!

  • Sigma Phi Epsilon is ranked as high as we are academically for a reason—which is why every room in our house comes furnished with at least one desk. Our facility also has a dedicated 24-hour quiet study room in addition to the campus libraries that we encourage members to utilize.

  • We have enough mattresses for every new member. You are allowed to supply your own mattress if you wish. The bunks in your room are twins so plan your mattress accordingly. TIP – most guys choose to use a fraternity provided mattress and buy a foam mattress topper, bringing a mattress cover is also a good idea.

  • We have three shower stalls on each of the two upper floors of the house and additionally on the basement level. TIP – You will want a pair of shower sandals and a shower caddy to go to and from the shower.

  • One thing that we find is commonly overlooked by incoming members is dress clothes and formal attire. Being in college, and especially in a fraternity, requires business casual and even sometimes formal dress. Members are expected to dress formal at least once a month so having a suit jacket is essential.

Financials

Required Expenses

NEW MEMBER FEE - $300

To start, you will be expected to pay a new member fee to the national SigEp organization. You will sit down with the recruitment team and the other members of the new class to be walked through the registration and payment process during your first week in the house. This is a one-time fee so there is no need to worry about it recurring down the road. This fee is pretty standard across every fraternity in the nation.

GREEKBILL QUARTERLY OPERATIONAL DUES - $960 per quarter

Operational dues go towards fraternity activities such as brotherhoods, formals, ritual supplies, tutors, philanthropies, etc. Basically, this money goes towards everything that is not room and board and directly funds all of the fun and/or helpful activities that the fraternity will participate in every quarter. 

To pay this bill, you will have an account made on OmegaFi. Once you have submitted your email and other roster info, an account will be made for you and an email will be sent to guide you through setting up your account. All fines will be administered through this site as well so it is very important to routinely check it. Card processing fees can be avoided by either mailing a check directly to OmegaFi, or setting up direct deposit.

If you plan on living out as a Freshman, Sophomore, or Junior the Operational Dues amount to $400-$500 per quarter. Seniors are generally expected to not live in the house and will pay a $300 fee.

QUARTERLY RENT - approximately $3300 per quarter 

You will be expected to pay quarterly room and board to SigEp National Housing (SENH). SENH is the property management company that we contract with to help maintain the property. Our property manager will send out a year-long lease to be signed, then you will set up a tenant portal on the SENH site and make all payments through that. All new members will be walked through the process to ensure that it is done properly.

Optional Expenses

PARKING LOT

SigEp has its own parking lot that members are allowed to purchase a spot in every quarter. Street parking can be extremely difficult to find so this is a great way to have a consistent place to park. The fee to park there is $250 per quarter and the lot is monitored by two of our brothers to ensure that only the proper people are parked in the lot. The VP of Finance will send out an email every quarter asking for people to reserve a spot on a first come-first serve basis.

PUNITIVE MEASURES FOR UNTIMELY PAYMENTS

The SigEp national bylaws have a 30-60 policy for timely payment of all dues, fines, and other expenses. This means that after 30 days of a brother not paying a bill, he becomes a suspended member. If the bill is still unpaid after 60 days, that brother is dropped from the house and can only regain membership after the bill is paid in full and the member is successfully voted back into the chapter. A separate method that can be employed in cases of extreme negligence is to send members to collections. We highly advise that you avoid this path as it will damage your credit score and leave you on a worse financial footing when you enter into the professional world.

With that being said, our chapter typically prefers to take a more personalized approach to helping brothers pay bills and only use the 30-60 policy and collections service as a fallback in extreme cases of negligence. Remember, we are your brothers and want to do as much as we possibly can to help you get the most out of your college experience. We understand that every family has its own unique monetary hurdles so if you are expecting to have trouble paying bills please approach the current VP of Finance to set up a payment plan. All financial issues will be kept anonymous and handled in a professional manner.

MEAL PLAN

$1100 of the $3300 goes towards the meal plan. If you have dietary restrictions such as being a vegetarian or vegan, it is absolutely acceptable to remove yourself from the plan and have your dues reduced by the full $650. Certain other dietary needs will also be considered. If you do not have a pressing health or dietary concern and are living in the house, you will be expected to be on the meal plan. The idea is that the meal plan is only economically feasible with full member buy-in. All appeals to be removed from the meal plan must be presented to the current VP of Finance. If he does not approve of your removal from the meal plan, you may appeal to the rest of the executive board during the next Exec meeting (held every Sunday).

DAMAGE DEPOSITS - $500

You will pay a one-time $500 damage deposit to SENH at the beginning of your membership. This covers repairs to everything from holes in the walls to paying various fines such as accidental triggering of fire alarms or improper disposal of compost and recycling. These fines are paid by the fraternity so damage deposits help ease the financial burden. You will be reimbursed for whatever is left over when you graduate.

FINES

Fines are an essential part of the fraternity that incentivizes members to participate in certain mandatory activities. These activities include but are not limited to ritual, chapter, and daily chores. So long as a member is fulfilling his obligations there is no need to worry about fines. They are a worst-case punishment rather than a primary punitive measure. All fines will be paid via Greekbill as outlined above.

SUMMER LIVE-IN

SigEp allows its members to live in the fraternity every summer for a fee of around $900. This fee is subject to change as rental rates are adjusted by the Alumni Volunteer Committee (AVC) to match market rates.

NO CASH POLICY

Cash is not an acceptable form of payment. Our goal is to ensure the safe handling of your payments and the untraceable nature of cash leaves the fraternity exposed to the risk of mishandling of funds. To protect your money, all payments should be made via checks written to “Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity”, credit/debit card, or wireless transfers. These methods leave a substantial paper trail that can be reviewed if any concerns involving payments should arise.

Remember, the VP of Finance is a volunteer elected by you and your brothers to help run the financial operations of the chapter. It is your right to be able to approach him with any questions or concerns and get a clear and honest answer. Financial transparency is an essential aspect of every organization. We strive to have financial reports released to show how money is being spent to ensure that you are not left in the dark. Committee positions are a great way to make an impact on where money is being spent. The VP of Finance has numerous committee positions under him that give you an opportunity to help construct the quarterly budget and get a better understanding of how the fraternity is run.