Greetings, brothers. It was 74 Leadership Schools ago that John O. Moseley invited to the newly constructed Levere Memorial Temple “anyone who wanted to come to this glorious new schoolhouse” to learn skills that would assist the undergraduate leaders of the Fraternity in those years. Thousands of brothers have attended our premier event since that first one some 75 years ago. When you look back at a small list of attendees, you’ll notice people such as Harry Bunting, Alfred Nippert, Lauren Foreman, O.K. Quivey or Joseph Mancini. Those are the names most of us would recognize. However, most of our graduates are brothers that you will probably never know. These are the day-to-day leaders of Sigma Alpha Epsilon that have made our organization great. Through it all, the perpetuation of the undergraduate fraternal experience has been heightened by our John O. Moseley Leadership School.
The Leadership School has changed venues throughout the many years of its existence. For a long time, our beautiful Temple served as the host with the campus of Northwestern serving as the base. This was true until the mid-1990s when the cost of housing at Northwestern became prohibitive. At that time, we moved to the heart of Chicago to the University of Illinois Chicago campus. It allowed a day at the Temple, a bit of Chicago flavor, an economical learning environment and a suitable venue for the school. UIC was a great host of the school until the mid-2000s when we moved, for a couple of years, to the Q Center. This was also a great venue for the event, but the numbers of undergraduates the experienced touched began to decline to only 300.
So now we come to the current venue, one of the many Carnival Cruise Line ships and destinations. The 75th Leadership School will be our fourth year at this venue and allow me to say what it has accomplished three major goals. First, the number of undergraduates attending has skyrocketed from 320 to this year’s goal of 850 undergraduates. Second, the attendance at chapter meetings, seminars and general sessions has hit an all-time high. Finally, the incidents of undesirable behavior is a fraction of what it had been in previous years – and all the while allowing the same leadership experience that Moseley envisioned and desired.
As we go into our 75th year, let us not forget that special events such as these allow Sigma Alpha Epsilon to service its undergraduates and alumni, further molding our experiences and increasing our desire for us to share them with our own sons or grandsons.
As always, please feel free to contact me via e-mail (mwiglesworth@sae.net), at Facebook (Marty Wiglesworth) or follow me on Twitter (@martywig). Phi Alpha! In the Bonds, 
Martin D. Wiglesworth (Centre '84)
Eminent Supreme Archon
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