Recolonization of Colsed Chapers.

[Tom Earp]

Western Carolina.

Coming soon!

[Cube TX]

What are the chances of New Mexico, Arizona or Arizona State ever returning? All of those chapters were going strong at one point. I know that the chapter at New Mexico State was brought back after being pulled. Is it still active?

[john1082]

I believe that both chapters in New Mexico are now closed.

Recolonizing is sometimes tougher than starting out new as there can be 'baggage' carried along the way. Bad relations with the host school, alumni with a grudge against Indianapolis, alumni that want to do it "old school" not understanding that whatever it was that they did in the 'good old days' probably led, in part at least, to the closure.

[Tom Earp]

john, this always amazed Me.

A Chapter is closed not for a whim, but for repeated malfunctions and with plenty of working with to try to get them on the right path.

Our new Staff Directors of Bill Farkas and John (Bif) Holloway have changed the thinkings of some and implemented of the previous Directors.


But, they will not put up with anything that smacks of mis conduct by a Chapter as It should be.

I do wish that when a Chapter is in trouble We are Notified. And in the same token, that when a New Colony is started that We get the same courtesy.

There seems to be a huge lacking at this point.

It seems, that We as Brothers find more out on G C than from IHQ.

[john1082]

It isn't just misconduct that can get a chapter closed.

We have some issues at Cal right now that are related to numbers; basically the membership numbers fell and there was a great deal of pressure applied to "fill the house". At the urging of some alumni the Fraternity was presented as the cheapest place to live. The alumni were focused on the business side, not the Fraternity side. The rent got paid but it morphed into a boarding house with a funny name.

We are trying to pull a rabbit out of a hat right now and keep Mu open. It is going to be a tough slog and we may not succeed. One issue is that we have to keep the alumni from screwing up our work. The alumni still do not understand that they were a part of the problem. The undergrads see this, but some alumni don't

If the alumni have a perpetual chip on their shoulders with respect to Indianapolis and the staff then recolonizing gets to be far more difficult.

[Tom Earp]

John, I agree whole heartedly and I should have expanded my post.

Alums can be a boon or a hinderence to Chapters in a lot of cases.

It might be the Chip on the shoulder syndrome is caused by what has happened in the past in relationship to IHQ.

I know My Chapter had a main problem with IHQ Years and Years ago. What was funny, that it was over something so minor I had to laugh. But it held for years until the New Leaders came on the scene.

We do have a strong core of Alums who have been working for Years with the Chapter and many times it was in the wrong direction for the Active Chapter who felt We were trying to run it instead of them We over came that and showed the Chapter that We were there to be of help.

With the tremendous help that We got from IHQ, We have turned a huge corner.

Alums who are willing to work with Chapters must look at a broader scope on how to help not hinder.

Numbers were our problem such as Mu Zeta, but We were building a New House and that did help in our case.

Since it is costly, a lot must rest on Alums shoulders to aid Their Zeta.

I would still like to see more info on C & C about closings and expansions.

Maybe a blurb on why for closing and why a School was chosen for expansion.

[Cube TX]

It makes sense that IHQ waits about 4 years or so before recolonizing a previously closed chapter. That way they can start out fresh and get rid of the element that probably caused the chapter to close in the first place. Of course, these days some people are in college for a lot longer than 4 years.

When I read the newspaper article on the UNM chapter I wanted to scream. I hate seeing all of the chapters from my region of the country getting closed. I'm glad Zeta Epsilon is still going strong (just won Organization of the Year at UTEP!). I get a little down that when I was president we didn't win as many awards, but it does make me feel a bit better when I remember that I helped recruit the guys who recruited the current brothers.

I'm sorry about helping to recruit Honky though! He may be my grand little brother, but I lay no claim to that goof! Oh... Honky, if you read this... thanks for coming to my wedding... heheh... my wife and I are expecting the baby any day now!

[john1082]

I, too, lament the loss of chapters in the west. I was the Pi at Texas Tech in the early eighties and assisted with their recovery from a house cleaning, a membership review that in retrospect was unnecessary. We lost Arizona and ASU for different reasons. Santa Barbara for numbers, UCLA for risk management, Chico and Fresno for difficulties in operation.

I do not want to see LXA become a midwest only Fraternity. To prevent that we must work harder to do more on our own and cultivate our own talent and leaders. The bi-annual leadership seminar is great, but it will always be an east coast, mid west venue. Those of us in the west are handicapped by distance. A one day road trip to get to a conference is easy with three guys in the car. A five day trip is less so.

With the loss of regional conferences we have lost that ability to train and share in a group setting. Perhaps we can explore it again, and devise a less costly way of doing it, one that would encourage undergrads to attend. But I believe that we must do this ourselves, not shutting Indianapolis out of it, but relying on ourselves to develop the programming and venue and faculty. A reginal meeting was held in Los Angeles a couple of years ago but the cost was $100+ per person. Can we do it for less?

I think we need to explore it. Clearly we must start small, but then, over time, expand the idea and do it on a regional basis. The old heads here remember the Conclaves which were an excuse to get drunk with 300 Brothers from your region. We cannot do that anymore. But can we explore other regional options? I think we must.

[Cube TX]

I remember circa 1997 three guys from my chapter went off to the regional conclave meeting in Denver and never stopped to think that they'd have to pay to stay at the hotel! I was the High Alpha at the time and they called me to ask why I didn't inform them of this... when I figured it was common sense! They skipped the meeting and decided to go sight-seeing in Colorado instead.

I personally never attended a conclave, even when I was High Alpha. At the time I was also IFC president and a member of the UTEP cheer squad as well as Vice-President of my family business (which I now own). I hear they were a lot of fun as far as partying, but not much else in terms of getting things done.

I once met some brothers from Texas Tech in the 90s when UTEP played Texas Tech in football. I believe that chapter has since been closed as well. Yeesh, I feel like the angel of death! Every chapter I ever visited (except for SMU) got closed down!

[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.

[john1082]

I was the High Pi at Texas Tech following an ill-advised house cleaning in 1982. These are some thoughts on the TTU Greek sysytem.

First, there are two distinct groups - the wealthy houses on "Greek Circle" and the fraternites that are NOT on Greek Circle. Years before I got to TTU, the University set aside some land on the west side of campus for a Greek row. If you were going to own, you had to build there. The old money fraternities did just that. Our chapter at TTU was young and did not have the dollars to do that. I might add that the buildings were fraternity lodges - nobody could live in them, they were meeting halls only. And they were palaces.

There are a great many long time west Texas families that send their kids to Tech. If daddy was an SAE then sonny will be, too. The established fraternities had multiple generations of family initiates - surprise - these were the fraternities on the Circle.

For the small town, first college generation kids the houses on the Circle were most appealing. And the ones that these kids were the least likely to receive a bid from. TTU seemed then to be very much a class driven Greek system, moreso than I have seen at other campuses, either before of since.

The small town, humble kids did indeed gravitate to the smaller houses like LXA. Kids that may not have had the best academic preparation before college, kids that were having to work 15 hours a week and then go to school full time and then try to squeeze house activities into the mix.

TTU was a tough campus for us as we did not have the same house dynamics as some of the wealthier, more established houses on the west side of campus. The west side chapters had perhaps 80 men in them and we were fortunate to run with 25 to 30. Add to it the small alumni base that TTU had at the time (perhaps 220 or so) and the picture becomes all the much clearer.

TTU did recover after the ill-advised membership review and operated for another 18 years or so. But the small town fraternity model that they operater on ultimately failed. Had they been willing to change the model, had the alumni stepped up with a major capital campaign to build on Greek Circle then it might have turned out differently.

But it didn't.

[EM1843]

I can only respond the what Ryan said about Southeastern chapters. I haven't had much experience outside of the Southeast, but Lambda Chi is deffinately strong here in the "South." However, the Southeast is still an area where traditions and history don't seem to die. Many of these "strong" chapters have serious issues with hazing, etc. Also while the alumni base for most chapters in the "South" is strong, they also bring with them their rememberances of the fraternity and how it should work.
I can provide one example. While working to rebuild Epsilon Mu, over a period of about 10 years, the chapter went from about 120 down to 13 men. By the time I joined we were at 33. A few semesters later I was at our Annual Housing Corp. meeting as the Rho. We had just assosciated 14 men, which was the largest class in about 4 years. The alumni however were still not impressed. They wanted us to assosciate 60 men every semester and then get rid of about 50% during the semester. This is a technique used by many of the larger houses at UF, and it was "how they did it in the 60's, 70's, and 80's."
These preconception of how a fraternity should be run and what events should happen during the semester are no longer in line with Lambda Chi's beliefs, but they are often followed in the Southeast.
If Lambda Chi wants to seriously change the Southeastern chapters for the better, the ELC program needs a serious overhall. Chapters need to be able to trust their ELCs almost like an Attorney-Client relationship. The ELC should be both an advisor and an advocate for the chapter.

[Cube TX]

I became IFC secretary the year Kappa Sigma was shut down for outstanding debt and failure to control chapter. The next year I was IFC president when SAE was kicked off after an ugly rape allegation. Kappa Sigma finally came back 8 years later, but SAE is still gone even though they had the strongest alumni base.

I'm proud that Lambda Chi was able to recover after losing all but 5 members at one point. That semester we had a great rush that saved us. Today the chapter is among the strongest on campus. I've heard the tales of Texas Tech's "class" system among fraternities and forgotten about it until now. I always find it to be a blow to ALL greek organizations on campus when a chapter of any fraternity is shut down.

[Tom Earp]

Ryan, It is good to see You back on the boards.

I cannot remember the Date, but there is a Colony that is either running or soon to be and then Chartering.

I will email Joe Clarey an Alum and try to get a further update.

Matt, I think that the S E is not the only area that feel the same way.

But, I wish everyone would realize that the new Leaders are much more intuned to what the feelings are and that the ELCs jobs is not to be snitches per say, but are there to work with The Chapters and impress on them what may need to be done to get back on track if need be.

I remember the story that You told about a previous situation at EM that You were not happy with and I along with others felt as You did.

I dont really feel that the S E is a bastion of LXA as there are many strong Zetas across the country.

1 of the strongest is Kansas State Un.

Several in Mo. are very strong also.

It seems that IHQ is more on track to give a fuller expectation of a more well rounded Fraternity in a country wide spectrum.

It cannot be done over night as I am sure we all can respect.

I would like to see more and stronger Zetas on the Western Area, but, it seems the Schools are a totaly different aspect than many of us may realize and I think John G would have a better grip on that as an Alum from Mu Z and High Pi at Fullerton.

I am sure it is of a big help when there are Zetas near any new Colonys as it helped in bebirthing of LX Z!

[Tom Earp]

WCU is not yet a colony but should be in October.

It will be reinstalled in late November or early December.

From Joe Clarey.