Andrew Dickson White, Cornell’s co-founder and first president, was a true believer in fraternities (and a member of three). Rather than cold, isolating dorms, he believed the fraternity environment was “the best substitute possible for the family relation.”
Cornell admitted its first students in 1868. By the end of the school year, 7 fraternities had already been organized. By 1900, there were 28, most of which endure to the present day. The fraternity system has grown along with the university, at its very core—it is “Peak Cornell.”
Pioneers
The strong fraternity system at Cornell University is a source of innovation and pionnering inclusion. Alpha Phi Alpha, the first fraternity established for African-Americans, was founded at Cornell in 1906. Alpha Zeta, the first for Latin Americans in the United States, was founded at Cornell in 1890. In 1917 Sigma Delta Tau at Cornell became the first Jewish sorority in the United States.
Big Red for Life
Cornell University's blend of academic excellence and its land grant mission to serve society have great chemistry with fraternity and sorority life. A disproportionate share of Cornell's campus and alumni leaders are drawn from “Greeks,” as are a disproportionate share of its volunteers and benefactors.
There is a better than even chance that any endowed building, school, or professorship is named for a generous fraternity alum—not simply because fraternity alumni enjoy successful careers, but because strong positive experiences as a student fraternity member encourage them to give back, and at far higher rates than non-members do.