The Fraternity Climate
The early 1900's found North America in a state of rapid growth and development. The college campus reflected the growth of the economy as more and more students entered colleges and universities. By 1909, there were a number of well-developed collegiate fraternities, many of which were more than 50 years old. Most major college campuses already had several established fraternities, but there were more young men interested in joining fraternities than there were memberships available.

The memberships of established fraternities were usually comprised of the wealthier students and those from more established families. In many cases, these students were legacies to fraternities.

The first generation college student (whose parents had not attended college) had little knowledge of fraternities, nor did he have the contacts necessary to make membership a possibility. The time was right for the organization of a new fraternity that would take as its members the outstanding, ambitious young men who, in many cases, would have been excluded from the organized fraternity system of the day.

Most college fraternities have had their beginning in a small group of friends on the same campus who attracted youths of similar views. As time went on, the original group would draw to it other groups formed in a similar way on other campuses, and gradually a national organization developed.

The Founding of Lambda Chi Alpha
Unlike most fraternities, however, Lambda Chi Alpha began as the dream of one man, Warren Albert Cole. He was born in Swansea, Massachusetts, and attended high school at Taunton and Fall River. While in high school he was involved with a preparatory fraternity. He entered Brown University for a few weeks, but eventually matriculated to Boston University's Law School in the fall of 1909.

One of his earliest ventures of starting a fraternity took place at a meeting of his first cousin and a more distant relative on November 2, 1909. The date was later selected as the first formal step in Lambda Chi Alpha, but in later years, Cole said that the date had little significance.

He was a young man of pleasing personality, ordinary means, limited experience, and no unusual talents except a dogged determination to found an international college fraternity. It is hard to believe that all alone he deliberately set out to challenge the prestigious fraternity world which already boasted 46 strong, well-established organizations. His unquestioning faith in himself and unwavering belief in his mission are the only explanations for his remarkable achievement.

Cole first made some unsuccessful attempts at starting a fraternity, about which we know little more than names: "The Lodge," "Tombs," "Lambda Pi," then it was Lambda Chi Alpha—"Loyal Collegiate Associates," until a new meaning was adopted in 1913 with the advent of the new, elaborate ritual.

Cole boldly approached many local groups at college and universities throughout the Northeast in hopes of finding others willing to join his new fraternity. Before the acquisition of Lambda Chi Alpha's first functioning chapter, Cole had corresponded or visited with 117 institutions.

Gamma
Early in 1912, Warren Cole, as was his custom in attempting to establish a chapter at a school, wrote to a student at Massachusetts Agricultural College (now the University of Massachusetts) in Amherst asking the names of the Greek-letter fraternities on campus and the names of at least two "good, non-fraternity men." Herbert E. Cole responded with the names of six Greek-letter groups and two names, including that of Lewis Drury. Warren Cole wrote to Drury asking if he was interested in forming a Greek-letter society. Apparently Drury was quite interested, as he had his agronomy professor write a letter of recommendation to Warren Cole.

Lewis Drury's petition was duly submitted and quickly approved--after all, it was Cole's first success in attracting a group after more than 100 futile efforts. Lambda Chi Alpha's first established chapter, Gamma Zeta, was born.

Epsilon
During the spring of 1912, Albert Cross, a student in the department of civil engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, received a letter from Warren Cole indicating that he had received the name of Cross from a mutual acquaintance and that he would like to form a chapter of Lambda Chi Alpha at Penn.

Cross liked Cole's idea and began talking with some friends. One of these friends was John E. "Jack" Mason, whom Cross had met in a French class that summer. Mason, who had hardly been interested in existing fraternities at Penn, suggested to another friend, Raymond Ferris, that they "take a shot at" establishing a chapter of Lambda Chi Alpha.

Thus, with colossal nerve, Cross, Mason, Ferris, and five other men dared to launch a fraternity chapter on a campus with an abundance of long-established national fraternities. But with determination, Epsilon Zeta began.

Following the addition of Zeta Zeta at Pennsylvania State College, the infant fraternity now felt confident in contacting established local groups. Cole made the acquaintance of members of Sigma Phi Delta at Brown and won its affiliation. A "picked delegation" at MIT proved successful. By the beginning of 1913, Delta Kappa at Maine was admitted as the seventh chapter.

The Second General Assembly
Lambda Chi Alpha was now truly a national fraternity, even though most of its chapters were still very young and not yet well organized. The first real efforts at national solidarity were made at the Second General Assembly, held at the MIT chapter house in Boston, March 22, 1913.

When Jack Mason found it impossible to attend the 1913 Assembly, he "pulled an all-nighter" in order to give a handwritten letter to Albert Cross before his departure for Boston. The letter, which Cross presented to the Assembly delegates, contained Mason's vision of the ideals and principles of Lambda Chi Alpha and how they would be expressed. His reason for the adoption of a new Initiation Ritual was based on the following rationale:

"The first question is, what should be the highest aim for a college fraternity? The answer is--I think--to have men of sterling character, who are efficient workers along all the lines of human activity; not students with big, all-around sympathies, who can deliver the goods in whatever activity they take up. In other words we have to preach two doctrines, the doctrine of work and the doctrine of character; or, if you wish to join the two, the doctrine of mighty energy working toward a high ideal. Nothing else counts. It makes no difference how pleasant a chap he is, if he can't do good sincere work he's no good, and we don't want him for a brother. The people we do take for brothers we want to encourage along these lines all we can."

In addition to the development of a new Initiation Ritual, the 1913 General Assembly saw the adoption of the significance of Zeta and Lambda Chi Alpha and revisions to the Coat of Arms and Badge.
Because of the tremendous impact of the second annual General Assembly held on March 22, 1913, this date has been chosen as the Fraternity's Founders' Day. This was the date on which the spiritual basis of Lambda Chi Alpha was decided upon by its early leaders and founders.

World War I
The First World War, like the Civil War, restricted the activities of all fraternities. As a young fraternity, a large proportion of Lambda Chi Alpha's membership was in the armed services--about 2,500 or 90 percent of the initiated members. Many fraternity houses were over to military authority to use as barracks.

When World War I ended, most fraternity chapters were reinstated, and the demand for national fraternity affiliations remained unsatisfied. At that time the National Interfraternity Conference fostered the formation of two new societies comprised of local groups which desired national affiliation. One of these new fraternities was Theta Kappa Nu.

Theta Kappa Nu
Theta Kappa Nu Fraternity was formed by the union of 11 well-established local fraternities on June 9, 1924. The first chapters of Theta Kappa Nu were brought together in Springfield, Missouri, through diligent efforts of four men--all of whom recognized the need to bring together strong local chapters with high standards into one national fraternity.

The pinnacle of the Springfield Grand Chapter was the signing of the League and Covenant--the instrument that embodied the ideals of the various groups and would bind them together to form one organization. Those present at the founding meeting were asked to come forward and sign the document. Each delegate realized that the signature meant the end of his local fraternity. In silence, each delegate present came forward, removed the badge of teh local fraternity from over his heart, placed it on the table, and signed the League and Covenant. Theta Kappa Nu was born.

With the help of the National Interfraternity Conference in identifying local groups and Theta Kappa Nu's policy of granting charters quickly to organization's with good academic standards, the young national fraternity grew quickly, and boasted 2,500 initiates in 40 chapters by the close of 1926. This record expansion remains unequaled in the fraternity world.

Theta Kappa Nu placed a more consistent emphasis on high academic standards than did most fraternities at the time. Scholarships were presented annually to members who pursued graduate studies, and a Scholarship Cup and Activities Trophy were awarded to the chapters with the highest grades and the most active involvement on campus respectively. The Scholarship and Activities Keys are also Theta Kappa Nu traditions that continue today.

The Union
Theta Kappa Nu, in contrast to Lambda Chi Alpha, maintained most of its chapters at small colleges. The Great Depression hit the smaller schools, and thus Theta Kappa Nu, harder than others. Many men simply could not afford even modest "extra" costs of fraternity membership. The early 1930's saw chapters of Theta Kappa Nu become inactive for the first time. Simultaneously, the number of active members dropped by one-third. In order to maintain strength of numbers, the Grand Council reduced fees in 1933 and again in 1935. Yet, it was not enough to counter the dire economic times.

Although Lambda Chi Alpha was in markedly better shape financially, it also clearly needed to expand its roster of chapters during the same climate. Following cordial opening discussions between leaders from Theta Kappa Nu and Lambda Chi Alpha in 1938, a formal negotiating committee was formed.

The merger was widely supported by the leadership of Lambda Chi Alpha. The union proposal was approved unanimously during the September 1939 General Assembly. Meanwhile at the Theta Kappa Nu Grand Chapter, after considerable discussion of the details of the merger, the decision to join with Lambda Chi Alpha was unanimous as well.

The enlarged Fraternity following the union brought Lambda Chi Alpha 27,000 initiated members and 105 active chapters located in 39 states and in one province. The union also permitted the expanded group to endure the difficult years of World War II.

World War II
The Second World War had a major impact upon colleges, and therefore upon college fraternities. The number of active members in all fraternities dropped 73 percent with a 36 percent loss of chapters. In Lambda Chi Alpha, 49 of the 129 chapters were inactive at some point in contrast to only six of the 48 during World War I. Again, chapter houses were used for military purposes, conclaves were abandoned to reduce unnecessary travel, two General Assemblies were canceled, and paper was hard to obtain for the Cross & Crescent. Chapters that did function did so on a reduced scale--reduced chapter publications; house repairs limited to essentials; no meat, no butter, and no dessert days were common.

More than 13,000 Lambda Chi's answered the call to arms, totalling more than a third of the living membership. More than 400 died in the service of Canada and the United States. When World War II was over, chapters immediately began to respond. By 1946, all but two of Lambda Chi Alpha's 114 chapters which existed before the war were active and alive.

Post-World War II
The period since World War II has seen the greatest surge of fraternity expansion in its history. The 20 largest North American men's general fraternities alone opened more than 1,700 new chapters during the last 50 years.

The Korean and Vietnam Wars also had an impact on the fraternity system. Most notably, the Vietnam War, coupled with serious student unrest of the late 1960's, had a psychological impact on the college student. There was a waning of interest in all established organizations and an emphasis placed on individualism. However, while membership and general interest in fraternities by non-fraternity men were affected, most chapters of most fraternities were able to grow.

Fraternities, as well as other institutions dealing with young people, were seriously challenged concerning their motives, ideals, and purpose for existing. Significant changes were needed in order to better serve individual fraternity members.

Lambda Chi Alpha recognized early in this period that it must have a steady source of feedback from its undergraduate members. Although undergraduates had always made the laws of the Fraternity through their vote at the General Assemblies, more day-to-day communication at the General Fraternity level was essential. By 1970, this need resulted in the formation of the Student Advisory Committee (SAC), whose chairman serves as a voting member of the Grand High Zeta (the Grand High Sigma).

Also during this time, Lambda Chi Alpha completely re-evaluated its program of education and orientation, doing away with pledgeship, pledges, and the second-class citizenship so often associated with them. Twenty years would pass before other fraternities would take serious steps to eliminate pledges and the accompanying hazing. As the Greek world entered the 1980's, fraternity professionals easily could acknowledge that standards in fraternity chapters had greatly declined. In Lambda Chi Alpha, the decline was a fallout from the 1970's when virtually every segment of society dropped its standards. However, as a means to allow chapters to "recover" from a loss of standards and realize their potential, the Standards for Chapter Excellence program was created. Program materials were developed in response to undergraduate questions about how chapters could improve themselves.

At the Fraternity's 75th anniversary in 1984, the Code for Chapter Excellence was approved by the 40th General Assembly as a challenge and commitment to all chapters and members to "strive diligently to achieve the highest level of performance in each of the Standards for Chapter Excellence and its prerequisites, and to seek to broaden the dimension of our chapters; to foster the finest qualities of mind and body; and to encourage an ongoing evaluation of our performance relative to the Standards for Chapter Excellence.

By the late 1980's, another challenge faced fraternities--the insurance and liability crisis. As society became more and more litigious and a "boys will be boys" attitude no longer prevailed, Lambda Chi Alpha was faced with two options: continue to allow blatant disregard for personal responsibility and safety and face the elimination of our Brotherhood, or take a leadership role in providing safe environments in which our members and guest can interact. The result was a comprehensive Resolution on Alcoholic Beverages adopted by the 1988 General Assembly and a complete risk management program. In following its tradition, Lambda Chi Alpha took a leadership role by being the first fraternity to adopt the chapter risk management officer (High Iota), crisis management plans, detailed chapter house safety inspections, event planning forms, and insurance premium allocations.

By the middle of the 1990's, Lambda Chi Alpha had set its sights firmly on a prosperous future. The need to increase standards and remain a leader among all fraternities were at the forefront of Lambda Chi Alpha's agenda as the Fraternity's minimum grade point standard increased and little sister organizations were eliminated by the 1990 General Assembly, basic membership standards were adopted by the 1992 General Assembly, and minimum chapter and colony standards were expanded by the 1994 General Assembly.

Our Heritage—Tomorrow's Foundation
What started as a dream of one man, today stands as one of the largest men's general fraternities in the world, more than 222,000 brothers strong. What began as 25 members in three chapters has grown to more than 215 active chapters and colonies in 45 states and three provinces. Today, the youngest of the 20 largest fraternities is the third largest.

Lambda Chi Alpha's heritage—based on progressive leadership, high standards, and a determination to overcome obstacles—is the foundation on which the Fraternity's future will be built. For the members of Lambda Chi Alpha, it is our goal and obligation to see that the Fraternity meets its challenges, changes when necessary, stands firm to its principles, and fulfills its mission.

Continue to Symbols

 

*Borrowed from Lambda Chi Alpha International, http://www.lambdachi.org/fraternity/history/