The men talked of forming a local fraternity, based on specific ideals which everyone agreed were right. They wanted to form a local fraternity that raised the fraternal standards above those of the current fraternities on campus. That day the men formulated a list of ten good men and decided to meet the next day to see if they still felt the same way about forming a fraternity.

They met the next day and their feelings remained the same. They looked through the university catalogue and checked off the men they considered to be good who did not already belong to a fraternity. The list totaled twenty to twenty-five men. In the end, a total of twelve of men would come together to form Sigma Delta Upsilon (this name was based on South Dakota University and many called the group sarcastically the South Dakota Uplifters or Upstarts).

The group decided on the official organization date of April 15, 1914. They secured pins in the form of a monogram of Sigma Delta Upsilon. They established an initiation ritual, which sadly has long since been lost. The ritual featured the three main requirements for membership in order of importance, first morality or clean living, second scholarship, third standing in activities or positive works in the community.

The group had regular meetings, established a constitution, and elected officers. Only a little over a month after forming, they secured the lease for the second floor of a house two blocks from campus for $54 a month.  The following year they would secure a new lease on a home just North of Main Street. Sigma Delta Upsilon finished the year ranked first in scholarship among all organizations on campus.

On November 14, 1914 the local fraternity received its first letter from a young, but growing national fraternity, Lambda Chi Alpha. The letter was written by none other than the founder of Lambda Chi Alpha and Grand High Alpha, Warren A. Cole himself. The petitioning for membership within Lambda Chi was neglected for a while. In the fall of 1915 however, negotiations picked up.