Alpha Tau Omega was founded in 1865 at the Virginia Military Institute on Christian principles. Today, ATO is flourishing with more than 190,000 members and 240 chapters nationwide. At Clemson we were re-chartered in 2005 and we have come back with force already being recognized as the Top IFC chapter at Clemson last academic year and being awarded with the National Fraternity's highest chapter award of True Merit two years in a row now. ATO’s philosophy is to produce great leaders of exceptional character, while at the same time providing a well-balanced college experience. Over time, the successful implementation of this philosophy has produced one of the most prestigious and influential groups of alumni at Clemson. The active brotherhood of ATO looks to continue this trend of excellence by recruiting men of higher standards. Alpha Tau Omega is dubbed as “America’s Leadership Development Fraternity” and our chapter shows this with brothers leading a variety of campus organizations like IFC, Order of Omega, Student Government, Student Alumni Council, ROTC and IPTAY. Our social calendar includes events such as our Founders Formal, Mountain Weekend, Tennessee Williams, Christmas and Halloween date parties. Philanthropy events include Habitat for Humanity, Red Cross Blood drives and our own philanthropy event “ATO Chili Cook-Off.” Clemson ATOs strongly encourage academics and consistently have a GPA above the all men’s average.