Chapter History

The 'Mighty' Mu Epsilon Chapter of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. was established on the campus of Florida State University on December 7, 1979 and Chartered on March 7, 1980 by our founders Kenneth KC Colebrooke and Maurice Parris.

Brothers KC and Maurice laid the foundation of our chapter with vision, courage, and an unwavering commitment to brotherhood. What they built was far more than a chapter, it was a legacy rooted in Brotherhood, Scholarship, and Service. We honor them not only for their historic role as founders, but for their continued presence, guidance, and love for the Mu Epsilon Chapter they brought to life. What a blessing it is to have our founders available for a call, text, Reunion gatherings, or when we need to know the spot to be in Miami! Their involvement remains a source of pride and inspiration, reminding us daily of who we are, where we come from, and the responsibility we carry forward. We give our founders; Brothers K.M.F.C. and Maurice their flowers with gratitude, respect, and enduring love.

IF IT AIN'T LIVE, IT AIN'T M.E.

Our chapter history would be incomplete if we did not acknowledge our FSU Zeta's, The 'Ravishing' Rho Kappa Chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. Thank you for riding with us through the highs and the lows. Your continued support, loyalty, and partnership have been invaluable to our chapter's growth and success. To our neighbor Brothers at FAMU, the 'Hard' Alpha Eta Chapter of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. You set the tone for our Fraternity principles in Tallahassee, and we appreciate all the joint events, strolls, chants, and brotherhood!

For over 4 decades, the Mu Epsilon Chapter has been more than just a brotherhood - we've been a heartbeat for the community. Service is in Phi Beta Sigma's DNA, and we believe that true leadership means uplifting, empowering, and helping those around us. For MuEp, community service isn't just a phrase in our Fraternity Motto; it's about showing up for our student population and surrounding community, inspiring the next generation, and rolling up our sleeves and getting to work where it matters most.

Below are some of the programs we have developed over the years:

• HIV/Aids Awareness Block Party
• Sleep-Out for the Homeless
• Bowling for Diabetes
• The Homer Thomas Diabetes Awareness Foundation
• Sigma Beta Club

Back in the day, when Mu Epsilon Bros just began to stomp on to the campus of FSU in the 80s, strolling was an event, where students and others watched and enjoyed the choreography of young men in a lined up. Times have changed for strolling, as it seems any organization creates and performs a stroll, but even to this day, nothing beats a fun, live, Sigma Stroll!

Mu Epsilon Bros have had to pleasure of stepping in some of the largest Stepshows, raising thousands of dollars in winnings, stepping in Conclave, and stepping with other great Sigma Chapters and Sigma Brothers. A Step Master is a subjective term, but MuEp has been blessed with some great steppers. To name a few, they are: Bro. 'Fathead' Sam, Bro. Kahlifi Mcgee, Bro. Sedrick Jackson, and Bro. Jason Minnis. We consider them Step Masters because these MuEp Bros have not only performed in multiple Stepshows, but have taught MuEp Bros some intricate and difficult steps, have gone on to teach other Sigma Bros and other Chapters and shared their knowledge and talent of stepping.

The Mu Epsilon Chapter takes pride in pushing the boundaries of technology and having innovative designs. Let's take a trip down memory lane and see how Mu Epsilon has used the internet, technology, and designs.

Our Websites

Version 0.1

It's the early 90s and the internet is booming into something cool, useful, and unique. Our Chapter Bro. Marvin Ballard created our first website, using free web hosting and site creation tools from GeoCities. Yep, if you remember GeoCities then you are old school! The site background was tan and brown and had a "burning sands" look to it. And yes, it definitely had flashing text and animated GIFs throughout. It fit the times of the 90s and was a pioneering moment for any organization.

Version 1.0

In 1998 Chapter Bro. Steve Pina was initiated into the Mighty Mu Epsilon Chapter and had a love for design and technology and wanted to take our website to the next level. And what was this amazing cool tech that was going to upgrade our site to that next level? Microsoft Word. Yes, a site completely built in Word. It was no amazing feat, but it did give the site a nice polished clean look. And it ran off FSU's free web hosting available for all students at the time. If you are a former FSU student, then you would remember this URL, followed by your initials and a 4 digit number: garnet.acns.fsu.edu

Version 2.0

It's the year 2000s and if you were into web design and development, then the hottest tool out there was Flash! Well before the iPhone and Apple banning the use of Flash on their platforms, Adobe Flash was being used by big and and small organizations. Mu Epsilon created a website fully built in Flash with an Enter page that launched the Flash version and along with a minimal non-Flash version. Animations, ActionScript, and custom designs were all features of the site.

Version 3.0

The Flash site was cool and appealing, but not easy to maintain and would have been difficult to build a platform for MuEp Bros to login and interact. Flash was also slowly dying, so we had to move on, and for the first time we built backend functionality with a database. The site would use Flash only for the home page banner for a quick animation of our Iron Sigma Man holding the Sigma Axe that is on our Shield. Version 3.0 introduced the ability for Bros. To create an account, login, interact with other Mu Ep Bros, and add and update content to the site like StepShows, Events, and Chapter Lines. These functions have carried to all future sites.

Fun Fact: The site had a few months of views so high that our web hosting was not able to handle the traffic and the site was crashing or unavailable. Well we had an 'incident' with the FSU football team back then and lets just say the FSU student population was not too happy about it, so they flooded our guestbook and site 🙃.

Version 4.0

This version of fsusigmas.com was probably one of the funnest and coolest of all versions. Bro Steve had an old school Sony camera at a Mu Ep event with a foldable green screen. About 10 Bros were recorded strolling, posing, or just acting like themselves. Using Adobe After Effects, Bros were featured on the home page on the top banner and randomly displayed. Version 4.0 also featured chat functionality, Bro search in their zip code area, and job recruitment capabilities.

Version 5.0

Todays version just builds on from previous versions with a focus on mobile. Mobile internet use far exceeds computers these days, so it was important that the site is responsive able to be used on any size screen. AI is taking over, so you may be wondering how much AI was used on the site. The home page has an animation of the Phi Beta Sigma shield and our Mu Ep Shield where our Founders are shown and the Founders faces were AI generated. That is the only place where AI is used for graphic designs. AI was primarily used for CSS and JavaScript code to make the building process quicker and less buggy.

Some other cool features include:

• Over 15 banner pictures from past to present randomly selected with over 20 random scrolling images that represent Sigma and our Chapter
• Designs created years ago have found their way back - with animation additions. Sunny da Pimp and the 8-bit Sigma Hand are back! The Sigma Hand was created in Goxel 3D and Adobe Animate was used for all animations.
• The largest enhancement to fsusigmas.com is the part that only MuEp Bros can see. All content on the site is easily updatable and maintained by Chapter Bros with a custom robust backend. Events, Event Registration, Pageants, Lines, and all other content can be maintained by MuEp Bros.

Graphic Design

Just a quick trip down memory lane. Before social media, the best way to get people to your event was with flyers. For a Brother with an eye for design, Bro Steve was always admiring and checking out other organizations flyers. When a Fraternity or Sorority was doing their week of events, you better be coming with a nice, cool, and unique flyer. There was a graphic design company that would do several of the organizations flyers, but they were not cheap. This was the start of Bro Steve’s journey into graphic design. Creating flyers, logos, and other graphics, and soon transitioned into web development and design.

The design skills gained will always be with Bro Steve, while gone are the days of passing out flyers at the Moon let-out, placing them on every car you see, and putting in the physical work past 2am to get folks to come to your event.