NEW YORK - Sigma Phi Epsilon (SigEp) national fraternity with a chapter at California State University Fresno announced that it has adopted a substance-free policy for all Fraternity facilities throughout its network of 215 chapters at colleges and universities in the United States.

"As recent tragic events have demonstrated, fraternities today have real problems," said SigEp CEO Brian Warren. "Sigma Phi Epsilon and our peers have unfortunately earned a reputation for being organizations that promote alcohol consumption, misogyny and violence. For SigEp, there can be no more discussion about maintaining that status quo. Fraternities must change."

Sigma Phi Epsilon has demonstrated a commitment to creating a new normal for fraternities. In the last two years, SigEp has removed pledging from its membership experience and established substance-free chapter houses as the nationwide standard.

"We believe these steps are necessary to accomplish our mission of promoting academic excellence and empowering our 14,000 young men to lead with integrity, not just now but for the rest of their lives," said Warren. "When we deliver on this mission, our entire society benefits from a generation of values-based leaders. But first we must address the basic health and safety of our students by doing away with archaic and dangerous activities.

We are reaching out to our host universities and our fraternal peers to engage them in these much needed reforms. We hope our overtures for collaboration will be met with immediate and positive response. Together, we must eradicate drug and alcohol abuse as an element of our organizations. And we must do it now."