Photo courtesy of @chapmanalphas on Instagram.
“The friendship and connection is larger than the word brotherhood,” said chapter president Keymn Cole about Chapman’s youngest fraternity: Alpha Phi Alpha.
In 2021, Chapman University hired Dr. Reginald Stewart, who championed the university's DEI office. Cole, a senior theatre performance major, spent many of his early years at Chapman sitting in Stewart’s office seeking guidance. But what he didn’t know was that he’d find brotherhood.
After being placed on leave, Stewart left his position in March 2025 following subsequent federal investigations. In response to President Trump’s administrative push to eliminate DEI presence on college campuses, Chapman dismantled its DEI office in April 2025. The remains of the DEI program were rebranded as the First-Generation and Promising Futures Program, with key DEI figures like Dr. Misty Levingston, who previously served in roles like Director of Black Excellence, reassigned within the new program; Levingston now holds the title of Director of the First-Generation and Promising Futures Program. The restructuring has allowed Chapman to maintain its federal funding stream, but it has left a gap for groups like Alpha Phi Alpha, which relied on the department and its leadership to foster their early development.
Since 2019, local active Alpha Phi Alpha (ΑΦΑ) brothers have been working to start Chapman’s chapter; this upcoming April marks its one-year anniversary on campus, but with just one semester underway and two active members, Alpha Phi Alpha — a historic Black fraternity — has arrived at Chapman.
Photo courtesy of @chapmanalphas on Instagram.
Meet the brothers behind Chapman’s Alpha Phi Alpha (ΑΦΑ), Keymn Cole and Harold Fullilove.
In their roles as president and vice president, Cole and Fullilove oversee many of the administrative tasks that, for the typical active member, are considered behind-the-scenes. But even as the two juggle leadership and membership, brotherhood and service remain their main objective.
“I just want us to really be out there and show what we do, because we do a lot of boots-on-the-ground work,” Cole said. “It's less of us sending money off to a cause; I think we'd rather use our hands and feet and actually serve that cause…I call us physical servants rather than monetary servants, and I think that's important.”
Alpha Phi Alpha’s motto: “First of all, Servants of All, We Shall Transcend All.”
What began as a study group in the 1900s became the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity for African American men when the Seven Jewels founded Alpha Phi Alpha in 1906. Minority students on Cornell’s campus used the fraternity as a support group as they navigated adversity and faced racial prejudice. Today, there are 686 Alphas in the nation; Cole and Fullilove are working to grow that number.
In his hometown of Atlanta, Georgia, Cole grew up surrounded by the brotherhood of his local Alphas and has dedicated much of his life to service.
“I've just grown to appreciate that part of my life; there's always something to give,” Cole told The Panther.
Alpha Phi Alpha has grown into his main avenue of service. As president, he spends most of his time juggling between chapter meetings, bookkeeping and representing Alpha Phi Alpha at campus events, as he looks to grow the fraternity in membership and awareness.
As an organization, Alpha Phi Alpha’s philanthropic efforts support Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, March of Dimes, Boy Scouts and Project Alpha, which “educates young men on sexual health and wellness,” Cole said. In partnership with Planned Parenthood, they have donated contraceptives and other sexual health resources to young men.
Cole also points out that if anyone has walked through Orange lately, they’ll have likely passed a red sign with the words “VOTE for Dr. Steven Glass.” Glass is a fellow Alpha, and his seat on the Orange Unified School Board has lent itself to another one of the chapter’s main initiatives: Go to High School, Go to College, where they help ensure that students in high school have the resources, funding and knowledge to be able to matriculate to a university. Glass has helped them spread that cause among neighboring schools like Orange High School.
Chapman’s Alpha Phi Alpha chapter may be two brothers strong, but that hasn't stopped them from completing 125 hours towards their philanthropy. But Cole isn’t stopping there.
“The goal is to serve or be of service to something or someone; I really want to be a part of that,” said Cole. “I'm a leader who feels like I don't need a lot of money to do something, but I feel like I do want partnership.”
The same morning The Panther sat down with Cole, Gamma Phi Beta’s 25th annual Airbands, one of Chapman’s largest All-Greek philanthropic events, was just hours away. “I wouldn't mind partnering with other fraternity sororities to get a larger initiative done,” he said.
Alpha Phi Alpha's closest partners on campus are Omega Phi Beta and Lambda Epsilon Lambda (LUL); both organizations were landmark additions to Greek life on Chapman’s campus. Omega Phi Beta is Chapman’s first multicultural Greek life organization spreading awareness for violence against women, and LUL uses leadership as a platform for cultural awareness and service to the Latino community.
Cole told the Panther, “(Alpha Phi Alpha has) not grown in brothers yet, but I've seen people embrace us in a way that is very, very welcoming, very large and very much like a community should.”