Alumni of the Alpha chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., unveiled a new leadership institute at Cornell University on Saturday. The House of Alpha Leadership Institute honors the fraternity’s legacy at Cornell and was inspired by the fraternity’s founding principles of scholarship, fellowship, good character and the uplifting of humanity.
What is the House of Alpha Leadership Institute?
The building is located at 105 Westbourne Lane in Ithaca’s Cornell Heights Historic District. It now welcomes student residents from all backgrounds and regardless of fraternity affiliation as long as they are committed to leadership, justice and equity. The space, which is a 9,000-square-foot house, was built in 1927 and was previously owned by the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity.
The opening was inaugurated in the presence of alumni fraternity brothers and their social impact nonprofit Alpha Light Fund. Attendees also included New York State Assemblyperson Anna Kelles and Ryan Lombardi, the VP for student and campus life at Cornell.
“This is a space built for growth, grounded in intention and open to all,” Dennis Mitchell, the founding president of Alpha Light Fund and a professor of dental medicine at Columbia University, said according to the Cornell Chronicle.
A $20-million fundraising campaign was also announced at the event. It will go toward supporting programming at the institute.
“We’re here to celebrate a vision of empowered leadership and active community building,” Mitchell added. “It’s a vision rooted in cultural legacy, in collaboration and in sustainable impact.”
Fraternity alum Robert F. Smith purchased the building in 2023 for $1.5 million. He also helped fund renovations with a $9 million donation.
“Together, we can accomplish great things,” he said. “And I look forward to this next generation using these investments that this current generation is putting in you to change and reshape the world so it fits all that you are capable of, and America becomes the vision of what it should be, through your work.”
A building that honors Alpha Phi Alpha’s legacy at Cornell University
Founded at Cornell in 1906, Alpha Phi Alpha was the first Black Greek organization in the U.S. Alumni include Martin Luther King Jr., W.E.B. Dubois, Duke Ellington and Thurgood Marshall.
Although the university was one of the few to welcome Black students in the early 1900s, there was still social segregation on campus. Alpha Phi Alpha was first founded as a literary society to remedy a need for community during these times.
“They created something new. Out of exclusion, they built belonging. Out of invisibility, they built visibility,” Mitchell said. “There’s a reason that that spark is lit right here at Cornell University and not anywhere else, and more than a century later, that spark continues to burn.”
Decades later, this legacy has endured. Smith shared how he found community at the fraternity when he joined Cornell as a freshman.
“These brothers welcomed me, in so many ways, to a new reality of opportunity, and that’s what the Alpha Phi Alpha, Alpha chapter, is all about,” he said.
Cornell University president Michael I. Kotlikoff highlighted the emphasis put on equality and access at the university through the years.
“Over the years, it’s a commitment that’s been questioned and tested many times,” he said. “Those founding values continue to guide us and ensure that Cornell remains committed to building a more just and equitable society through the education of the next generation of scholars and leaders. Alpha Phi Alpha’s founding at Cornell in 1906 is a critical part of that history, and its legacy is part of our identity today.”