New members in the Lambda Chi Alpha are recruited and then immediately welcomed as potential brothers in the bond through the Fraternity’s exoteric Associate Member Ceremony. To maintain consistency and encourage values-based recruitment, Lambda Chi Alpha has created the Cole Recruitment Institute — a complete training program, developed and designed in a retreat format, to provide experiential learning for chapters at both the local level and international Lambda Chi Alpha events.
The Warren A. Cole Recruitment Institute builds on the concepts of the Seven Core Values of Lambda Chi Alpha, while providing the tools and training to achieve both quality and quantity in chapter recruitment efforts.
Associate Member Program
After experiencing the Associate Member Ceremony, new associate members are exposed to the Call to Brotherhood — Lambda Chi Alpha’s associate member education program and training curriculum. Over the course of the eight weeks, they learn about Lambda Chi Alpha, its history, how we are organized, how we function as a group, how we govern ourselves, how we develop leaders for our chapter, our campus, and our country, and, most importantly, how we develop brotherhood. The Call to Brotherhood is designed to provide associate members with a foundation of conceptual understandings and practical skills facilitating developmental growth as men and contributing brothers of Lambda Chi Alpha.
An important component of the Call to Brotherhood education curriculum is experience-based learning. Each week, the entire Zeta participates in a brotherhood event, or experience, themed around that week’s core value. Using Lambda Chi Alpha’s educational model, brothers and associates are given the opportunity to reflect and make meaning of that experience, before sharing their thoughts and insights with one another. This model allows brothers to see “real world” applications of Lambda Chi Alpha’s core values and provides a forum for brothers and associates to learn from one another through specific events and discussions.
Seven Core Values
LOYALTY
Establishes the correct order of our obligations and commitments. Unswerving allegiance to the organization and its laws, ideals, and defining principles prevents us from misplacing our loyalties.
DUTY
Delineates the sum total of all laws, rules, and customs that make up our organizational, civic, and moral obligations. Our values originate with duty because we expect individuals, as a minimum, to fulfill their obligations. We often expect individuals to exceed their duty, especially in ethical matters.
RESPECT
Denotes the regard and recognition of the absolute dignity that every human possesses. Specifically, respect indicates compassion for and consideration of others, including sensitivity to and regard for the feelings and needs of others.
SERVICE & STEWARDSHIP
Service before self signifies the proper ordering of priorities. The welfare of the organization comes before the individual’s. While the focus is on service to Lambda Chi Alpha and broader communities, the idea also incorporates the concept of stewardship, of holding something of value in trust for others.
HONOR
Describes the complex of all values that make up the public code of the individual. Significantly, honor provides the motive for action and demands adherence to a public moral code, not protection of reputation.
INTEGRITY
Encompasses the sum total of a person’s set of values — his private moral code. A breach of any of these values will damage the individual’s integrity. Integrity, closely related to the word integer, refers to a notion of completeness or wholeness.
PERSONAL COURAGE
Depicts the premier virtue that enables us to persevere despite fear, danger, or adversity. Personal courage includes the notion of taking responsibility for decisions and actions. Additionally, it involves the ability to perform critical self-assessment, to confront new ideas and to change.