Three years after the fraternity Lambda Chi Alpha was established as a colony on Baldwin Wallace University’s campus, it has officially become a chartered chapter.
When a sorority or fraternity becomes chartered, the chapter is considered an official part of the campus; it also means that chapter met the requirements it needed to become chartered.
For Lambda Chi Alpha that meant submitting a sixty-two page packet that reviewed the fifteen requirements they had to meet. These requirements included monthly reports and information about academics, recruitment, and involvement on campus.
Senior and Lambda Chi Alpha President Rob Hood was shocked when he first learned that the chapter had finally become chartered.
“I thought about how we’ve been trying to become chartered for the past three years, and we’ve been very close for about a year now,” Hood said. “To finally be able to receive it is just amazing.”
The men of Lambda Chi Alpha had a celebration when the news broke that their chapter had been chartered.
“We all ran screaming through our hallway and had loud music playing,” Hood said. “Afterwards we went to Coe Lake and ate some pizza while we talked for a while.”
Junior Adam Piller had gone home for the weekend when he found out the news about his chapter.
“I started tearing up,” Piller said. “I got really emotional about it because becoming chartered has been something our members have been working toward for about three years and now we’ve finally received it.”
Now that Lambda Chi Alpha has become chartered the men will be able to paint their fraternity’s colors in their chapter room and hallways, hang their Greek letters outside of their building, and hold positions on the Interfraternity Council, or the IFC.
Lambda Chi Alpha is also setting new goals to strive for in the future, such as winning the Grand High Alpha award which recognizes chapters that have maintained a superior level of operations for at least three consecutive years.
“There is always something we can be working towards,” Piller said. “Basically the mindset we need to have is the goal of bettering ourselves. It’s going to be strange setting new goals because the entire time I’ve been in my fraternity the goal was to get chartered, and now that we’re chartered we have to make sure we don’t plateau as a chapter.”
A chartering banquet for Lambda Chi Alpha will take place next March where they will officially receive their charter from an overruling executive board called the Grand High Zeta.
“I’m just very excited in general that we finally met all of our standards,” Piller said. “I hope that we continue to meet those standards and go above and beyond as a chapter.”