Greek Letter Designation for Chapter



Each chapter of Lamdba Chi Alpha has a Greek letter designation given to it when it receives its' charter. These letters are not given out at random as it might first seem. Originally, our founder Brother Warren Albert Cole had set aside certain letters for certain schools he hoped would have chapters form. The order was to be in the alphabetical order of the Greek alphabet. Unfortunately, he promised certain letters to schools who did not meet the requirements to gain a charter until after other schools--further down the alphabet--had already become chartered. For example, the Alpha chapter was the first to be formed (at Boston) because Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. The second letter is Beta. The second chapter to become chartered, however, was the Epsilon chapter. Because this order quickly became jumbled, it became impossible to use the Greek alphabet's natural order to assign chapter designations or Zetas. To remedy this, Brother John E. "Jack" Mason came up with an order of Zeta assignment which conformed to the chapters which had already been assigned.

A (A--Alpha), Good (G--Gamma), Energetic (E--Epsilon), Zeta (Z--Zeta), Is (I--Iota), Lambda's (L--Lambda), Boast (B--Beta).
Strength (S--Sigma), From (F--Phi), Delta (D--Delta), Pi (P--Pi), Our (O--Omicron), Motto (M--Mu), To (T--Tau), Each (H--Eta), THrough (Q--Theta), Union (U--Upsilon).
EXcellent (X--Xi), CHaracter (C--Chi), Only (W--Omega), Knowing (K--Kappa), No (N--Nu), Retreating (R--Rho), StePS (Y--Psi).

The way that it works is that chapter's designation ends in the letter Zeta. This is because every chapter is called a Zeta for secretive reasons. The letter(s) in front of the last Zeta are the chapter's Greek letter designation. Since there are 24 letters in the Greek alphabet, there are obviously not enough designations for chapters since we have more than 24 chapters. To remedy this, the order starts all over again. So instead of going from Alpha Zeta to Psi Zeta and stopping, they start to add another letter.

A Z. . .Y Z

The next time around (the 25th chapter) it goes to Alpha-Alpha Zeta, then Alpha-Gamma Zeta, etc. until it ends the cycle with Alpha-Psi Zeta.
A-A Z. . .A-Y Z

Then again it goes for another round starting with Beta-Alpha Zeta, Beta-Gamma Zeta, etc. until it ends with Beta-Psi Zeta.
B-A Z. . .B-Y Z

There are a few exceptions to this system, however. Whenever Lambda Chi Alpha assimilated another fraternity in September/October of 1939, the system was revised a bit. The fraternity's name was Theta Kappa Nu. In honor of these chapters which were absorbed into Lambda Chi Alpha, the chapters which became ours were given Zeta designations which beginning with a Q (Theta), a K (Kappa), or a N (Nu). So chapters that have the format,

Q-A Z, K-G Z, or N-X Z

are very likely old Theta Kappa Nu chapters that were absorbed into our fraternity.


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