The Dartmouth chapter of Sigma Nu fraternity won the Gallagher Cup -- a national honor awarded to the Sigma Nu chapter with the highest collective grade point average in the nation.
The fraternity's 3.3 grade point average for the 1995-1996 academic year earned it the prestigious Gallagher Cup.
"We are pretty proud of this award," said Brian Hickey '97, president of Sigma Nu.
Sigma Nu beat out more than 200 other chapters, Hickey said.
"I think a lot of people were surprised that a frat could do so well," he said. "Dartmouth is a hard place to be a student, and to get to that level of achievement is very satisfying."
The College compiles statistics of each house's GPA, which is formulated as an average of the house members' individual GPAs.
"The chapters at other competitive schools do well too. The Stanford chapter usually is in the running," Hickey said.
One house member said he thinks the award will help change perceptions of fraternities.
"I think fraternities in general have a bad rap," Sigma Nu brother Jake O'Shea '97 said. "This is a tangible example of a Dartmouth frat doing well in terms of academics," he said
Sigma Nu has won the Gallagher Cup seven times -- most recently in 1991. The fraternity also received commendations for academic performance in 1993 and in 1994.
"We have a great brotherhood," O'Shea said. "It was fun for us to get this award."
Sigma Nu was founded in 1869 at the Virginia Military Institute. It was originally created as a secret organization in protest to hazing at the school. The chapter at VMI closed when the Institute abolished the Greek system there.
