page_title: Delta Kappa Epsilon
section_title: Founding of chapters
hierarchical_section_title: Delta Kappa Epsilon / Chapters / Founding of chapters
caption_attribution_description: English: Cornell Deke House
context_page_description: Delta Kappa Epsilon, commonly known as DKE - or - Deke is one of the oldest fraternities in the United States, currently with fifty-six active chapters across North America & Canada. Founded at Yale College in 1844 by fifteen sophomores who were discontent with the existing fraternity order on campus. The men established a fellowship "where the candidate most favored was he who combined in the most equal proportions the Gentleman, the Scholar and the Jolly Good Fellow.
context_section_description: Within five years of the founding of Phi Chapter at Yale, chapters were installed at Bowdoin College, Princeton University, Colby College, Amherst College, Vanderbilt University and University of Alabama. 
  October 16, 1844 - Phi adopted its Chapter name; Sherwood begins Chapter install at Bowdoin College.
  November 1, 1844 - Theta Chapter, first members initiated; initiation fee was a dollar & fifty cents.
  September 15, 1845 - Zeta Chapter, Princeton, only sixty-nine members initiated during brief existence.
  November 1, 1846 - Sigma Chapter, Amherst, founded by Ledoux.  ~ed.note: DuBois?~
  December 23, 1946 - First ΔΚΕ Convention, New Haven, Connecticut
  
  Delta Kappa Epsilon's first West Coast chapter was founded at the University of California, Berkeley on Halloween night, 1876. The Mu Chapter in Hamilton, New York at Colgate University is one of the few with a Temple, open only to DKE member initiates of the Mu Chapter. The Lambda Chapter at Kenyon College built the first fraternity lodge in 1854. Delta Kappa Epsilon became an international fraternity with the addition of the Alpha Phi chapter in 1898 at the University of Toronto, Canada.
  Expansion to the United Kingdom had little success. Today, ΔΚΕ chapters are located only in the United States and Canada.
  Currently, Delta Kappa Epsilon has eleven colonies, or associate chapters, that include Cornell University, Ithaca; Northeastern University, Boston; University of Colorado, Boulder, University of Georgia, Athens; University of Mississippi, Oxford; University of Tennessee, Knoxville; University of Texas, Austin; University of Illinois, Springfield; Vanderbilt University, Nashville; and Washington State University, Pullman.
  ΔΚΕ has grown to fifty-six chapters and has initiated over 85,000 members across North America.
caption: The Cornell chapter house is a National and Ithaca Historic Landmark
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