Officers directing traffic, U-Hauls and dollies going to and fro on a hot August morning – all set the scene in front of Mississippi Delta Community College’s Hargett-Lee Women’s Residence Hall. Many parents appeared both excited and nervous as they were perhaps bracing for their children to spend their first night away from home. College life is upon them and the campus now becomes their home away from home. Therefore, refrigerators, microwaves, toiletries and every convenience of home that can fit in a dorm room had to be lugged up stairs, around corners and down long corridors on Friday. That’s where the Epsilon Xi Lambda Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. provided a hand, with its members helping students get items to their rooms, by providing water and snacks, and just demonstrating the fraternity’s aims – manly deeds, scholarship and love for all mankind. A few men dressed in old gold and black descended on a local college campus and walked up to complete strangers to offer a hand. “This is part of our outreach,” said Epsilon Xi Lambda President Edward Hill. “As a chapter, we cover four counties (Bolivar, Coahoma, Sunflower and Washington) and this is the first time that we’ve assisted with move-in day on the MDCC campus. We will be at Delta State tomorrow.”
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. was founded in 1906 by a group of college students at Cornell University. The creed of service has been “the obligation” since the outset of the organization. However, the fraternity’s presence at MDCC is a reflection of a relationship that the local chapter has with one of its more prominent members. “We have strong ties to MDCC,” Hill said. “Not only is our fellow member and brother, Dr. Tyrone Jackson, the president, we have members of our fraternity in key positions throughout the campus.”
