Lambda Chi Alpha
Lambda Chi Alpha (ΛΧΑ), commonly known as Lambda, is a college fraternity in North America. It was founded at Boston University in 1909.[3] Lambda Chi Alpha is one of the largest social fraternities in North America with over 300,000 lifetime members and active chapters and colonies at 195 universities.[4]
Not to be confused with Chi Alpha or Chi Alpha Omega.Lambda Chi Alpha
November 2, 1909
Boston University
Active
United States, Canada, and Australia
Per Crucem Crescens
(Crescent through the Cross)
Χαλεπά τά καλὰ
(Naught Without Labor)
(Every Man a Man)
Royal Purple
Kelly Green
Old Gold
Cross and Crescent, Paedagogus, Zeta Zephyr, and Purple, Green and Gold
185 active, 322 chartered
Over 8,600 collegiate
Over 300,000 lifetime
Lambda Chis, Lambda, Modes, Methods, Clunks, LCA, LXA, and Chops
The youngest of the 15 largest social fraternities, Lambda Chi Alpha has initiated the third-highest number of men among all fraternities, based on NIC statistics. Lambda Chi's international headquarters is located in Carmel, Indiana, outside Indianapolis. Its members are referred to as Lambda Chis, LXAs, LCAs, Lambdas, Chops, Odes and Choppers. Lambda Chi Alpha is a member of the North American Interfraternity Conference (NIC). Lambda Chi Alpha briefly left the conference in October 2015[5] before rejoining in November 2023.[6]
History[edit]
Founding[edit]
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.[7]
The official story told by Cole and Albert Cross is that on November 2, 1909, 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.[8] 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.[7]
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, Percival C. Morse on November 23, 1911. The group issued a charter for itself that was backdated to November 15.[7]
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.[9] 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 March 22, 1913 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.[10] 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. November 2, 1909 is also still recognized, so Lambda Chi Alpha celebrates two Founders Days annually.[10]
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.[10] 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.[11]
Pledging and hazing policy[edit]
Beginning in August 1969, the concept of fraternity education replaced pledge education at Lambda Chi Alpha.[20] The fraternity education program was designed to integrate all new members into the chapter equally.[21]
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. "Pledge implies a second-class membership, indentured servitude, hazing, class officers, and extensive memorization. Pledge implies a fixed length of menial membership that is used as a gateway to full membership, with often significantly lower expectations," according to Paedagogus, published by the fraternity.[22]
Lambda Chi Alpha formally prohibits hazing of any form, on or off campus, by its members. The fraternity's constitution defines hazing as "any action taken or situation created intentionally to produce physical discomfort or mental discomfort by embarrassment, harassment, or ridicule."[23] The fraternity first condemned hazing at a 1928 North American Interfraternity Conference meeting.
[edit]
20th century[edit]
In 1958, the fraternity expelled its Hamilton College chapter in Clinton, New York, for insisting on a non-discrimination policy for admitting members. The national fraternity insisted that its members be Christians who were either white or American Indians.[24] The expelled chapter reorganized as an independent society called Gryphon, which continued to operate for more than two decades.
In 1988, James Callahan, an associate at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, died of an alcohol overdose from a Lambda Chi Alpha drinking hazing ritual. Fifteen members of the chapter were indicted for his death.[25]
2000s[edit]
In 2007, Remy Okonkwo, a member at Georgetown College in Georgetown, Kentucky, was found hanging in the fraternity house on campus. The coroner ruled his death a suicide but his family still believes foul play was involved.[26]
In 2008, the chapter at San Diego State University in San Diego was suspended by the university for four years for hazing and alcohol violations.[27]
In 2009, the chapter at University of Southern California in Los Angeles was suspended after three women accused members of sexual assault. In 2011, the chapter was disciplined again for hazing new members.[28]
2010s[edit]
In 2011, the chapter at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida was suspended after a sorority member whose identical twin sister was dating the fraternity member who shot and killed her inside the house.[29][30]
In 2012, the University of Nevada, Reno chapter in Reno, Nevada was suspended by the university and the fraternity's board of directors. The chapter had been on probation for alcohol-related violations.[31]
In 2013, the chapter at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee was suspended as a result of hazing and alcohol-related violations.[32]
In May 2014, following a yearlong investigation, seven members at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign were arrested and charged with using and distributing illegal drugs. Police found MDMA pills, 40 grams of MDMA powder, cocaine residue, Adderall pills, suspected LSD, cannabis, a large tank of nitrous oxide, and drug paraphernalia in the fraternity house.[33] As a place to purchase drugs, the fraternity had reportedly gained the nickname "the candy shop", according to The News-Gazette.[34]
In October 2014, the Lambda Chi Alpha General Fraternity (LCAGF) board of directors voted to suspend its Lambda Zeta chapter at the MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts for at least five years due to "conduct that does not support the fraternity's priority of providing a healthy chapter environment for its members."[35]
In January 2015, the chapter at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas, was suspended until 2019 for multiple alcohol violations.[36]
In March 2015, the chapter at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, Tennessee was suspended for five years for hazing associate members, accepting ineligible members, and hosting unauthorized parties with alcohol present.[37]
In February 2016, the chapter at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville in Knoxville, Tennessee was shut down after repeated hazing violations and disorderly conduct reports.[38]
In March 2016, the chapter at Southern Methodist University in University Park, Texas was given a five-year suspension for hazing and code of conduct violations. The fraternity was previously suspended in 2009 for similar infractions that led to the expulsion of 35 out of its 92 members.[39]
In May 2016, the fraternity's national office suspended the chapter at the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon after a Lambda Chi Alpha cooler was discovered among a half-mile-wide swath of trash left behind at Lake Shasta. An estimated 1,000 students had docked houseboats over the weekend, but a photo of the cooler decorated with the phrase "Do you wanna do some blow man?" had gone viral on the Internet.[40]
In August 2016, Colson Machlitt, a football player at Georgetown College in Georgetown, Kentucky, died after allegedly jumping down a flight of stairs at the fraternity. Alcohol was suspected to be involved in his death.[41]
The chapter at Butler University in Indianapolis was suspended by the school without citing a specific reason, although the Indianapolis Star reported that alcohol violations played a part. The university said it would not consider reinstating the chapter until 2021.[42] Following the suspension, a woman filed a civil rights complaint against the university, saying that it grossly mishandled her allegation that she was raped by a member of the fraternity during a fraternity party. The fraternity member had previously been accused of sexual misconduct by another student.[43]
In April 2018, the chapter at Cal Poly, SLO in San Luis Obispo, California,[44] was placed on interim suspension after social media images surfaced depicting members dressed up as gang members and one wearing blackface during the school's multicultural celebration weekend.[45]
The Indiana University-Bloomington chapter in Bloomington, Indiana, was placed under a two-year suspension after an associate member reported hazing activities occurring in the chapter house to the university. Reports of brutal physical exercise, liquor hazing, and the act of capping were mentioned in the report. In response, the fraternity's national office removed over 100 members, who will be able to fully recolonize in fall 2021.
In 2019, the chapter at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, South Carolina, was kicked off campus until 2023 for hazing and alcohol violations. The chapter also was suspended for breaking other rules established by the fraternity's national office.[46]
2020s[edit]
In 2020, the University of Georgia chapter in Athens, Georgia, was suspended after racist and other insensitive text messages between members were exposed by a fellow student on Twitter.[47]
The Texas Christian University chapter in Fort Worth, Texas was suspended following an investigation into hazing violations.[48]
In 2024, a student at the Western Kentucky University chapter in Bowling Green, Kentucky committed suicide in the off-campus chapter house, however no foul play was suspected after an investigation by Bowling Green police.[49]
Lambda Chi Alpha was founded in Boston in 1909, and for the first decade The Fraternity lacked a central office. Records were divided between the homes of Grand High Alpha Warren Cole in Swansea, MA and Registrar Samuel Dyer in Attleboro, MA.[56] It was then moved to Northeastern Pennsylvania and eventually to Indianapolis, Indiana, where many other fraternity and sorority national headquarters are located.[57]
In popular culture[edit]
Lambda Chi Alpha is referenced in the Kenny Chesney song "Keg in the Closet", which includes the lyrics: "This ol' guitar taught me how to score, right there on that Lambda Chi porch, Mary Ann taught me a little more, about wanting what you can't have."[68] Chesney is a Lambda Chi brother from the Iota-Omicron chapter at East Tennessee State University.
In 2023, the University of New Orleans chapter was featured in season seven of the Netflix series, Queer Eye.[69]