Lambda Chi Alpha is an international men's collegiate fraternity. [1] In 1939, Lambda Chi Alpha merged with Theta Kappa Nu and absorbed 28 active chapters, plus seven on campuses where Lambda Chi Alpha was already represented. [1] In 2021, the general assembly of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity voted to switch from a "colony" and "colonization" model to an "associate chapter" and "expansion" model.
Lambda Chi Alpha chapters are known as subordinate Zetas, or simply Zetas. As such, the Alpha chapter at Boston University, the fraternity's first chapter, is referred to as Alpha Zeta. Zetas are identified by Greek letters in a unique scrambled alphabet naming scheme. [2]
At the fraternity's inception, founder Warren A. Cole assigned Greek letters to petitioning groups that had not yet been chartered. Not all of these groups were chartered. As a result, the first seven chapters were designated Α, Γ, Ε, Ζ, Ι, Λ, and Β, in that order. John E. Mason created a 24-word mnemonic device with words representing each Greek letter once; the first seven words were in the order that the chapters were already named.
Therefore, the chapters are named in the order: Α, Γ, Ε, Ζ, Ι, Λ, Β, Σ, Φ, Δ, Π, Ο, Μ, Τ, Η, Θ, Υ, Ξ, Χ, Ω, Κ, Ν, Ρ, Ψ. After the twenty-fourth chapter, the sequence was continued with a prefix and hyphen (Α-Α, Α-Γ, Α-Ε, ... Γ-Α, Γ-Γ, Γ-Ε, ... Ε-A, etc.)
When Theta Kappa Nu merged with Lambda Chi Alpha in 1939, former Theta Kappa Nu chapters were assigned chapter designations prefixed with Theta, Kappa, or Nu. [1] The second letter of their chapter name was assigned in the order mentioned above and applied to the chapters in order of their precedence in Theta Kappa Nu; e.g., Theta Kappa Nu's Alpha chapter at Howard College (now Samford University) became Theta Alpha Zeta. On 21 campuses, chapters of both Lambda Chi Alpha and Theta Kappa Nu existed. In those cases, the chapter of Lambda Chi Alpha kept its original designation, and the letter which would have been assigned to the chapter of Theta Kappa Nu was permanently retired. A singular exception is the chapter at Georgia Tech, Βeta-Κappa Zeta, which was named in recognition of its existence as a chapter of Beta Kappa, a national fraternity whose other existing chapters merged with Theta Chi in 1942. [3] [4] Note that the Theta Kappa Nu chapters at Baker University (Kansas Alpha / Theta-Beta), the College of Idaho (Kappa-Psi), Oglethorpe University (Georgia Alpha / Kappa-Beta), and Westminster College (Missouri Beta / Theta-Omicron) were inactive at the time of the merger with Lambda Chi Alpha and are, therefore, not included in the following list. [1]
In the following list, active chapters are indicated in bold and Inactive chapters in italics. [1] [2] [5] [6] [7] [8]