About Us

In the spring of 1922 two groups of civil engineering students at the University of Illinois, one calling itself Chi Epsilon, and the other calling itself Chi Delta Chi, independently of each other, took steps to petition the faculty for permission to establish an honorary civil engineering fraternity. As soon as the existence of the two groups became known to each other, plans were immediately propagated to merge the two groups. On May 22, 1952, the Chi Epsilon Fraternity was founded. Since then, Chi Epsilon has grown to 143 chapters (of which 137 are active), with over 125,000 initiated members as of December 2018.

The University of Hawaii Chapter of Chi Epsilon was founded in 1957 as the 49th chapter. Mr. Randall Akiona is currently the Pacific District National President and Pacific District Councilor and Dr. Lin Shen is the faculty advisor. The University of Hawaii Chapter has 20 active members who participate in various activities, events, and projects. The emphasis of the Hawaii Chapter is to develop sound traits of character and technical ability among civil engineers to push the standard of professional service.

Previous service projects have been graffiti paint out and clean up in the Mānoa and Mo'ili'ili area, storm drain stenciling in the Salt Lake area, and the Mokauea Island Restoration Project. In addition, members participate in a picnic, initiation banquet, and other social activities.

Each semester, the chapter invites qualified civil engineering students to become pledges of Chi Epsilon. The pledges of the Hawaii Chapter go through a very challenging, yet rewarding, process. It includes a pledge construction project and the making of the Chi Epsilon wooden keys. Initiates apply knowledge from the classroom and teamwork to accomplish the three parts of the construction process: Conception, Design, and Construction.