Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. is celebrating the new student facility and residence hall it established at its founding campus, Cornell University.
On Feb. 25, the Ivy League university announced that, in October, Alpha Phi Alpha’s founding Alpha chapter established a new campus space that doubles as a residence hall and community hub, according to the Cornell Daily Sun. The facility, called the House of Alpha Leadership Institute, is designed to be a “destination for dialogue” and a supportive space that uplifts people of color, according to the Ithaca-based Alpha
Light Fund, which manages the institute.“[The creation of HoALI] is a huge step in the right direction, and a very important step for the legacy of the fraternity and … for minorities and Black men on campus,” said Christian Flournoy ’27, president of Cornell’s Alpha Phi Alpha chapter.
Located on the campus where Alpha Phi Alpha was founded in 1906, the new facility features 13 residential rooms along with a flexible event space for educational programming. Activities at HoALI are guided by the fraternity’s seven core pillars and focused on the challenges facing emerging leaders, including healthcare and corporate inclusion.
The milestone marks a historic achievement for the Black Greek-lettered fraternity. HoALI is the first facility of its kind not only for Alpha Phi Alpha but across the entire Divine Nine, the nine historically Black Greek-letter organizations within the National Pan-Hellenic Council. Since opening, the space has also welcomed programming from Black Students United, Black Student Empowerment, and other campus groups.
“It is creating a space where scholarship meets civic responsibility, where dialogue becomes action, and where young leaders are equipped with the tools to shape society,” Gavin Mosley, Cornell’s Alpha Phi Alpha chapter advisor, and Shawn Lee, leader of the Alpha Light Fund, wrote in a joint statement.
With a distinguished roster that includes trailblazers like Martin Luther King Jr., W.E.B. Du Bois, Thurgood Marshall, and Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), whom Flournoy has personally met, he stressed that the strength of Alpha Phi Alpha’s brotherhood is at the heart of HoALI’s mission.
“It’s not just the house and the leadership institute as itself,” Flournoy said. “It’s also the people that live within it.”
“This Black History Month, I’m excited about the road taken to get here, but I’m even more excited about what HoALI will represent for generations of Cornellians and Ithacans to come,” Mosley added.
RELATED CONTENT: Minding Our Own Business: Returning To Our Roots With These 5 African Nations Leading The Diaspora Repatriation Movement