Alpha Phi considers itself a women's fraternity because its founding date predates the invention of the word "sorority".

[4] With the member's fathers serving as a board of trustees, the fraternity secured a loan to build a chapter house.

[4] Although the actual founding date of the fraternity is September 18, 1872, Alpha Phi has celebrated its Founders Day on October 10 since 1902, since many colleges and universities were not open for classes in mid-September at that time.

This badge is a silver circle with red stones and is a replica of the pins presented to the founders at the fraternity's 50th anniversary in 1922.

[13] Alpha Phi officially adopted Cardiac Care as its philanthropic priority in 1946, which then became the Foundation's focus, along with awarding academic scholarships, upon its founding in 1956.

[citation needed] In 2013, Miss America 2015 Kira Kazantsev was terminated from the Theta Mu chapter at Hofstra University for abusive hazing.

[19][20] In 2015, the Beta Mu chapter at the University of Alabama took down a recruitment video that was heavily criticized for its lack of diversity and the provocative way in which collegiate women were portrayed.

On bid day, the sorority was accused of endangering the health and safety of new members and violating the university's alcohol policy.

The incident prompted criticism from national and international news sources and the university's Student Association received petitions to remove the chapter from campus.

[25] In September 2018, a document by a former recruitment chair of the University of Michigan Alpha Phi chapter surfaced with descriptions of how the chapter's membership selection process was based on selecting for certain physical appearances and assigning numbers to these women based on the judgment of the recruitment chairs and representatives from their international headquarters.

The exposé described that Alpha Phi supervisors ordered her to give the Potential New Members (PNMs) an "External Prescore" based on pictures from their social media profiles.

Throughout the recruitment process, active members in the sorority were also ranked on superficial qualities and matched with "stronger" or "weaker" PNMs.

[26] In the fall of 2018, the Alpha Phi chapter at Old Dominion University was suspended for one year from March 22, 2019, through March 22, 2020, and subjected to an organization assessment and action plan for intimidation, use, or possession of alcohol, furnishing or distributing alcohol, and violation of university policy.