Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity - Kappa Phi Zeta, Baldwin Wallace University, Berea Ohio.
Creed of Lambda Chi Alpha
We believe in Lambda Chi Alpha, and its traditions, principles, and ideals. The crescent is our symbol — pure, high, and ever growing; and the cross is our guide — denoting service, sacrifice, and even suffering and humiliation before the world, bravely endured if need be, in following that ideal.
May we have faith in Lambda Chi Alpha and passion for its welfare. May we have hope for the future of Lambda Chi Alpha and strength to fight for its teachings. May we have pure hearts, that we may approach the ideal of perfect brotherly love.
Cole Recruitment Institute
New members in the Lambda Chi Alpha are recruited and then immediately welcomed as potential brothers in the bond through the Fraternity’s exoteric Associate Member Ceremony. To maintain consistency and encourage values-based recruitment, Lambda Chi Alpha has created the Cole Recruitment Institute — a complete training program, developed and designed in a retreat format, to provide experiential learning for chapters at both the local level and international Lambda Chi Alpha events.
The Warren A. Cole Recruitment Institute builds on the concepts of the Seven Core Values of Lambda Chi Alpha, while providing the tools and training to achieve both quality and quantity in chapter recruitment efforts.
The recruitment success of our current chapters is of the highest importance to Lambda Chi Alpha, and to that end, educational leadership consultants receive high-end recruitment training from experts in Greek life, business, marketing, and fraternity consulting. Lambda Chi Alpha also provides unique educational experiences, including this institute, to help chapters achieve success.
The Warren A. Cole Recruitment Institute was developed based on the 2006 Recruitment Institute at the General Assembly in Orlando, Florida, and was then piloted at three campuses in 2006-2007: Worcester Polytechnic Institute (Pi Zeta), the University of Maine (Beta Zeta), and the George Washington University (Delta-Xi Zeta).
The Cole Recruitment Institute is designed to give brothers an overview of some of the top recruitment strategies and tools in fraternity life today. The program helps put recruitment in a fresh perspective, and clearly illustrate how chapters can be more successful — the Lambda Chi Alpha way.
Call to Brotherhood
After experiencing the Associate Member Ceremony, new associate members are exposed to the Call to Brotherhood — Lambda Chi Alpha’s associate member education program and training curriculum. Over the course of the eight weeks, they learn about Lambda Chi Alpha, its history, how we are organized, how we function as a group, how we govern ourselves, how we develop leaders for our chapter, our campus, and our country, and, most importantly, how we develop brotherhood. The Call to Brotherhood is designed to provide associate members with a foundation of conceptual understandings and practical skills facilitating developmental growth as men and contributing brothers of Lambda Chi Alpha.
An important component of the Call to Brotherhood education curriculum is experience-based learning. Each week, the entire Zeta participates in a brotherhood event, or experience, themed around that week’s core value. Using Lambda Chi Alpha’s educational model, brothers and associates are given the opportunity to reflect and make meaning of that experience, before sharing their thoughts and insights with one another. This model allows brothers to see “real world” applications of Lambda Chi Alpha’s core values and provides a forum for brothers and associates to learn from one another through specific events and discussions.
During associate member orientation, new members learn the Seven Core Values forming the foundation of Lambda Chi Alpha’s approach to brotherhood. These Seven Core Values — Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Service and Stewardship, Honor, Integrity, and Personal Courage — once learned and internalized equip each Lambda Chi Alpha brother with an clear moral compass always orienting him, no matter the environment or consequences, toward making ethical decisions. Over the ensuing weeks, the Seven Core Values are examined, one each week, and defined as to how the week’s specific core value relates to real situations in Lambda Chi Alpha. Again, our purpose is to prepare the new member, to build a solid foundation for further growth so, once initiated, he is inspired to become a True Brother.
Our approach to member and leader development is profoundly influenced by the U.S. Army’s leader development shorthand of BE-KNOW-DO. The BE component is who you are as a person, as a leader, and as a brother, in short, your character. The KNOW component represents your skills, technical and interpersonal, that describe your Competence as a leader. The DO component is action, the real test of a leader’s effectiveness. Decisions, and the actions that follow, are the result of the combination of character and competence. No less business luminaries than John P. Kotter, of the Harvard Business School, and Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, have identified the U.S. Army’s approach to leader development as the most effective in the world. We would certainly be foolish to ignore recommendations like that.
