Spectemur Agendo Foundation Grants

The Spectemur Agendo Foundation offers grants aimed at enhancing the educational and residential experiences of Cornell undergraduates. By upgrading facilities and providing cultural and mentoring programs, the foundation seeks to create a vibrant community at 800 University Avenue.

What is the Spectemur Agendo Foundation?
The SpectemUr Agendo Foundation provides a venue on the Cornell campus that attracts creative, intelligent and aware young men to a residential learning environment with programs in music, science, architecture and the culinary arts. The Latin words “Spectemur Agendo” — etched on the building’s cornerstone — means “to be seen in action.”
The Beta Charge of Theta Delta Chi provides the impetus and manpower to make the Foundation’s programming happen. This esteemed fraternal organization has seen an unbroken line of brotherhood at 800 University Avenue for 150 years.
The foundation’s home at 800 University Avenue is now 90 years old. Minor repairs and improvements have been made over the years, but the majority of the structure is original. In addition, the needs of Cornell undergraduates had changed over the years. Their interests in activities associated with residential life have changed.
Recognizing this, in 2000, the Board of the Beta Charge began looking for creative ways of upgrading the quality of the residential experience to make 800 University Avenue more relevant and attractive to Cornell undergrads. In 2001, the Board created the Spectemur Agendo Foundation (SAF), a 501(c)(3) educational foundation, as the vehicle for beginning a physical and programmatic renaissance at 800 University Avenue.
Today SAF owns 800 University Avenue and operates it as an educational venue around a series of cultural and mentoring programs, much like a residential college at some other Ivy League schools or Cornell’s new West Campus house system for sophomores, juniors, and seniors. One of the key goals of the Campaign for SAF is to create an endowment that will fund these cultural and mentoring programs.
The brothers of Beta Charge continue to operate as a fraternity and are the primary beneficiaries of the community-oriented programs conducted at 800 University Avenue. As the owner of the property, in 2005, SAF made major improvements to the house to support its educational mission, but further work is needed. Another key goal of the foundation is to create a perpetual maintenance endowment to sustain the major renovations were completed almost fifteen years ago, and to prepare for more improvements.