Lambda Chi Alpha
Lambda Chi Alpha, commonly referred to as Lambda Chi, is a collegiate fraternity in North America. With over 300,000 initiates as of 2024, it is the third-largest social fraternity in the world by number of initiates. It has almost 8,700 current undergraduate members affiliated with chapters and associate chapters at 166 colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. Its members may be known variously as Lambda Chis, LXAs, LCAs, Lambdas, Chops, or Choppers at different campuses.
Lambda Chi Alpha was founded at Boston University in 1909. It is a member of the North American Interfraternity Conference, which it rejoined in November 2023 after withdrawing from the conference in 2015. Among the largest 15 social fraternities in the world, Lambda Chi Alpha is the youngest. Since 2014, after maintaining its headquarters at various locations in Indiana, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania, it has been headquartered in Carmel, Indiana, outside Indianapolis.
History
Founding
Lambda Chi Alpha was founded by Warren A. Cole, a law student at Boston University School of Law in Boston. There are two different accounts of the fraternity's founding.The official story told by Cole and Albert Cross is that on, Cole, Percival C. Morse, and Clyde K. Nichols reorganized the Cosmopolitan Law Club, a society of Boston University law students into the Loyal Collegiate Associates, which was renamed Lambda Chi Alpha in 1912. All were close friends and had been members of Alpha Mu Chi, a prep school fraternity. The Greek letter name is thought to have been used from the beginning but is not recorded in the Alpha Zeta minutes until April 27, 1910.
A second account of the founding, based on interviews with contemporaries, is that Cole and others did belong to a loose group known as the Tombs or Cosmopolitan Club but this was not related to Lambda Chi Alpha's founding. Instead, according to the alternative account, Cole shared an apartment with James C. McDonald and Charles W. Proctor, who later joined Sigma Alpha Epsilon. Cole then established his own fraternity with Ralph S. Miles, Harold W. Bridge, and Percival C. Morse on. The group issued a charter for itself that was backdated to November 15.
Cole approached many local groups at colleges and universities throughout the Northeast seeking others willing to join his new fraternity. He corresponded with or visited 117 institutions by 1912, when a group at Massachusetts Agricultural College accepted a charter to become Gamma Zeta. The first General Assembly, establishing a structure for the national fraternity, was held in Boston on April 13, 1912.
The fraternity held its second general assembly in Boston on in which the fraternity adopted its secret motto, ritual insignia including its badge and coat of arms, and the basic organizational structure. Lambda Chi Alpha virtually replaced the fraternity Cole had established outside of its name. The 14th General Assembly, in 1931, recognized March 22 as Lambda Chi Alpha Day in recognition of these achievements. In 1942, the board of directors renamed it Founder's Day. is also still recognized, so Lambda Chi Alpha celebrates two Founders Days annually.
In the years that followed, a divide opened between Cole and a group of young alumni led by Mason, Ernst J.C. Fischer of Lambda Chi's Cornell University chapter in Ithaca, New York, and Samuel Dyer of the University of Maine chapter in Orono, Maine. Dyer was supported by Albert Cross at the University of Pennsylvania chapter in Philadelphia and Louis Robbins of the Brown University chapter in Providence, Rhode Island. In 1920, Cole was ousted and Fischer was elected national president. In 1927, Fischer became international president when Epsilon-Epsilon Zeta at the University of Toronto in Toronto was chartered.
Theta Kappa Nu merger
The Theta Kappa Nu fraternity was formed by eleven local fraternities on June 9, 1924, in Springfield, Missouri. With the help of the North American Interfraternity Conference in identifying local groups, and Theta Kappa Nu's policy of granting charters quickly to organizations with good academic standards, the fraternity grew quickly and had approximately 2,500 initiates in 40 chapters by the end of 1926.During the Great Depression, both Theta Kappa Nu and Lambda Chi Alpha saw membership decrease and chapters shut down. In 1939, the two fraternities agreed to merge. The merger ceremony was held at Howard College chapter of Theta Kappa Nu in Birmingham, Alabama. The merger immediately increased the number of chapters from 77 to 105 and the number of members from 20,000 to 27,000. At the time, this was the largest merger in fraternity history. All Theta Kappa Nu chapters became Lambda Chi Alpha chapters and were given chapter designations that began with either Theta, Kappa, or Nu. At schools where chapters of both fraternities previously existed, the two merged and retained Lambda Chi's Zeta recognition.
Headquarters locations
Lambda Chi Alpha was founded in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1909. For the first decade of its existence, the fraternity lacked a central office and records were divided between the homes of Grand High Alpha Warren A. Cole in Swansea, Massachusetts and Registrar Samuel Dyer in Attleboro, Massachusetts. In 1920, the fraternity moved its headquarters to Northeastern Pennsylvania, where it was located in Kingston and Wilkes Barre. Later that year, it relocated to Indianapolis, where many other fraternity and sorority national headquarters are located. Since 2021, its headquarters has been based in Carmel, Indiana, outside Indianapolis. Its former headquarters include:- 1909: Swansea, Massachusetts and Attleboro, Massachusetts
- 1920: 261 Pierce Street, Kingston, Pennsylvania, 18704
- 1920: 160 South Main Street, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania 18701
- 1920: 30-40 North Pennsylvania Street, Indianapolis, Indiana 46205
- 1923: 136 East Market Street, Indianapolis, Indiana 46204
- 1930: 55 Monument Circle, Indianapolis, Indiana 46204
- 1940: Rhodes, Mansion, 2029 North Meridian Street, Indianapolis, Indiana 46202
- 1955: 3434 North Washington Boulevard, Indianapolis, Indiana 46205
- 1974: 8741 Founders Road, Indianapolis, Indiana 46268
- 2014: 11711 North Pennsylvania Street, Suite 250, Carmel, Indiana 46032
- 2021: 10 W Carmel Drive, Suite 220, Carmel, Indiana 46032
North American Interfraternity Conference
Symbols
The colors of Lambda Chi Alpha are royal purple, kelly green, and old gold. Its symbols are the cross and crescent. Its flower is the white rose and its mascot is the lion rampant. Its motto is Vir Quisque Vir or "Every Man a Man." The fraternity's core values or pillars are Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Service & Stewardship, Honor, Integrity, Personal Courage.Membership
Beginning in August 1969, the concept of fraternity education replaced pledge education at Lambda Chi Alpha. The fraternity education program was designed to integrate all new members into the chapter equally.In 1972, Lambda Chi Alpha officially abolished the pledge process and replaced it with associate membership. Associate members in Lambda Chi Alpha to this day have all of the same rights as initiated brothers, can hold officer positions, wear the letters, and can vote on all issues except for those involving Lambda Chi's initiation ritual. Status as an associate member permits new members to enter the fraternity with respect, and helps to combat the issues that arise from the possible abuse of pledges. Lambda Chi Alpha was the first fraternal organization to abolish pledging.
Philanthropy
From 1993 to 2012, Lambda Chi Alpha's philanthropy was the North American Food Drive. As of 2010, NAFD had collected around 33 million pounds of food for food banks. In 2012, NAFD was discontinued under that name and rolled into an ongoing partnership with Feeding America.In 2017, Lambda Chi Alpha announced a trial partnership with the St. Baldrick's Foundation, a Monrovia, California-based organization that funds childhood cancer research. Chapters were encouraged to host or participate in head-shaving events to raise money for the foundation.
In 2019, Lambda Chi Alpha announced a partnership with The Jed Foundation, a Boston-based non-profit organization that seeks to protect emotional health and prevent suicide for teens and young adults. Together, they are launching Lambda Chi Alpha Lifeline, an online mental health resource center tailored from the foundation's ULifeline website, which provides college students with information about emotional health issues and specific resources available to them on their respective campuses. It also offers a confidential mental health self-screening tool.
In 2020, Lambda Chi Alpha announced its partnership with Movember, an Australia-based non-profit foundation that raises awareness of men's health issues such as prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and men's suicide. Movember has recently become a primary philanthropic focus for Lambda Chi Alpha and the fraternity's national administrative office.
In 2023, Lambda Chi Alpha announced its partnership with American Red Cross, a nonprofit humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief, and disaster preparedness education in the United States. Lambda Chi Alpha is the first and only fraternity with a partnership with The American Red Cross.