[TNTX2005]

My name is Ryan, my old screen name was Ryan400z but my school shutdown my e-mail and I have not been on this website in a long time. This has been the first post that I have wanted to respond to even though I read the posts every once in awhile. Epsilon Omicron Zeta, The Univeristy of Tennessee, had our best year in three years last year. We initiated twenty-two brothers in the fall and will be initiating four or five in August. It was a great recruitment and we are ready to have another huge fall next year. At the same time, our university has kicked off chapters such as SAE and Kappa Sig, two historically powerful fraternities at UT, like ourselves, and greek life has taken major hit.

In regards to expansion, I too would like to see more development of our fraternity in the West, especially with dormant chapters such as UCLA and Arizona St. Those chapters have been closed for the right amount of time, although ASU might need another year or two. Hence, hopefully the previous brothers that were involved in the fraternity learned from their mistakes and some of them want to helpout rebuiliding the chapter. For the most part, the state of Texas has strong chapters, there are a lot of chapters here. Everywhere I visit there seems to be a chapter. Texas Tech does not have a chapter. I think Lambda Chi would be thrive at a school like Texas Tech becuase of the very laid back, humble people, that populate the student body.

Our fraternity as a whole seems to be doing a great job creating new chapters and maintaining the standards in our older chapters. This past year we did not have a cornucopia of negative public relations events, especially compared to the year before. Regardless, if you look at the amount of chapters such as KA and SAE being shutdown, especially in the Southeast and Midwest we don't hold handle a candle to them

Tom, first of all I wanted to say hello, its always nice to talk to you and hear your knowledge and insights about the fraternity. I was wondering if you have any news about Western Carolina's return? People have been talking about their recolonization for along time. The brothers at The University of Tennessee had a close bond with the brothers at Western Carolina. Western Carolina was the strongest chapter in North Carolina with a great group of guys. The event that caused the closing was tragic, but everyone soon realized the fraternity was the scapegoat in this situation. I visited Cullowhee a couple years ago and people talked very highly of the chapter and many students anticipated their return. Their alumni is very loyal and dedicated to making sure this chapter comes back strong. Regardless, any more info on their actual return will be greatly appreciated.

I am now in Austin, TX. I planned on helping out with the Univ. of Texas chapter this past spring but I am going to start helping next month in order to help them prepare for summer rush. They need a lot of help.

Also, I highly doubt Lambda Chi Alpha will solely be a Midwest fraternity. The chapters are extremely strong in the Southeast, I believe the region has the strongest chapters in the country. At the same time, their is a lot of animosity with chapters in the Southeast and our corporate headquarters, or internationals, whatever the correct term is. I would say more so with Southeast chapters. I will not list any but a lot of us know who they are. Many of the chapters in the Southeast do not attend General Assembly and are sanctioned appropriately. At the same time, they do not and have not agreed with our nationals policies for along time. Regardless, some of our strongest chapters reside in the Southeast. Strong meaning many positive qualities such as: succcessful philanthropy events creating strong public realtions with the surrounding community and university, quality men via targeted and planned recruitment, comprehending and understanding the history of the fraternity and ritual, and many other aspects. I know the ELC checked off all the aforementioned traits when he visited my chapter the past two years. Anyway I do not see these chapters being shutdown or succeding the international fraternity anytime soon.

Overall, I hope everyone is doing well and it seems like the fraternity had a good year. I'll be around and if anybody ever wants to chat pm me.