Goodbye, Alumni House. Hello, Seneca Place.

Staff members in the Division of Alumni Affairs and Development (AA&D) are getting ready to work under the same roof for the first time in recent memory.

Alumni affairs employees who now work at Alumni House on campus will join the rest of the division at Seneca Place, in downtown Ithaca. The first group moved March 24. Others are scheduled to relocate April 13 and May 7. All told, a total of 26 staff will move. The university has not yet determined how it will use Alumni House, said Chris Marshall, associate vice president for alumni affairs.

"This decision aligns with the Office of Alumni Affairs' strategic plan and will help to establish alumni affairs as a vital partner to the division's development operation," said Marshall. "Working together under one roof will make it possible for staff to work side-by-side, share ideas and identify new opportunities for achieving our goal of broad-based alumni engagement."

Seneca Place, at the corner of East Seneca Street and North Tioga Street, houses development staff members working in principal gifts, major gifts and the Cornell Annual Fund.

Alumni House, at 626 Thurston Ave. and overlooking Beebe Lake, was built in the 1910s as a fraternity house and later was home to a sorority chapter. The university bought it in the 1960s to accommodate the offices of alumni affairs and related programs. It has housed the Office of Alumni Affairs for more than 30 years.

"Some among our staff are saying goodbye to a long-familiar home," Marshall said. "But we are looking forward to the added energy that will come from working at our new location with our good friends and colleagues."

Staff telephone numbers and e-mail addresses will remain the same. The new mail address for alumni affairs is 130 E. Seneca St., Suite 400, Ithaca NY 14850.