Seven Core Values of Lambda Chi Alpha

Developed in 2007 and modeled after the U.S. Army’s values, Lambda Chi Alpha’s Seven Core Values — loyalty, duty, respect, service and stewardship, honor, integrity, and personal courage — provide a moral compass for members of the Fraternity.

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.

To learn more about our Fraternity’s core value, watch Lambda Chi Alpha brother, Lt. Gen. Donald Campbell describe the meaning of each value.