Honor Societies To Which I Belong

This file contains information about the three honor societies I was inducted into as an undergraduate at Villanova University. I'm including it here to provide you with more information about the societies and so that if you're interesting in seeing what you have to do to join one, you'll know. Well, actually honor societies normally only accept by invitation only, so I guess I should say that this information will tell you what kind of class standing, etc. you need to have in order for them to invite you to join. It will also give you information about the goals of the societies. This information is copied verbatim (except for the history information which I summarized) from publications of the respective societies, however, I do not know the proper references for these publications, so I cannot give citations. If I figure out the proper citation, I will certainly include it here. I have images of the Greek letter mottos now and the ALT tags on them have the letters spelled out in case you can't see the images.

Quick Links: Sigma Pi Sigma | Phi Kappa Phi | Phi Beta Kappa -- They're listed in this order just because that's the order I was inducted into them.

Sigma Pi Sigma -- Physics

Purpose

The primary objective of Sigma Pi Sigma is to serve as a means of awarding distinction to those of high scholarship and promise of achievment in physics. As a part of the Society of Physics Students, Sigma Pi Sigma endeavors to help students attain a clearer understanding and appreciation of physics, to promote further interest in the advanced study of physics, to foster the spirit of scientific research, to encourage a professional spirit and friendship among students of physics, and to popularize interest in physics on the part of the collegiate community and the general public.

Requirements

Undergraduate candidates must be in the upper one-third of their class in general scholarship to meet the minimum standard that chapters may use. A higher average than this for physics courses is often established. Undergraduate candidates must have completed at least three semesters of full time college work and at least three semester courses in physics that can be credited toward a physics major.

Motto

Investigation, the Forerunner of Knowledge.

[Sigma kappa epsilon psi iota sigma
Pi rho omicron sigma tau alpha tau eta iota sigma
Sigma upsilon nu epsilon sigma epsilon omega sigma]

    ,             ,            ,     _
(Skep-sis Praw-stah-tays Soon-ess-eh-oce)

The Key

The symbolic key dates from the origin of the Society, having been unchanged since the first design was adopted. Its shape represents the historic standard voltmeter. Arched across the top, enclosed in a border, are the letters "Sigma Pi Sigma." In the apex of the key, in relief, is an incandescent lamp, connected to a dynamo in the center.

The founders of the Society intended for this symbolism to portray three of the essential attributes of a scientist: Accuracy, Knowledge, and Creative Energy. The standard voltmeter is to symbolize accuracy, the lamp to typify knowledge, and the dynamo to portray the creative energy that is so essential in research.

The Insignia

The official insignia consists of an outline of the key with a scroll superimposed upon the stem. On the scroll is written the Greek word, Sigma omicron phi iota alpha (Pronunciation: So-fe'e-ah) signifying "knowledge," the goal of all scientific knowledge.

The Seal

The seal is circular in form and around the top is written the name of the Society. Across the center is the Greek word, Phi nu sigma iota kappa alpha (Pronunciation: Phoo-see'-keh), from which the name "physics" was derived. Coming from the top of the seal is a lightning flash. This illustrates one of the agents of nature, electricity, which has been made of such great value to mankind by physicists and engineers. Beneath the flash is the date of the founding of Sigma Pi Sigma, 1921.

Charge

We charge you to continue your growth as individual scientists, to cooperate with other scientists, to assist in the development of physics on the local level, and to take an interest and play a part, whenever possible, on a national level in this great science. We invite you to accept these responsibilities freely, in all humility and seriousness of purpose.

Mission Statement

This Mission Statement was adopted by the 1995 SPS National Council on September 30, 1995. It answers the question "Since membership in Sigma Pi Sigma is for a lifetime, what does membership in Sigma Pi Sigma mean long after the induction ceremony is over?" This Mission Statement is now part of the induction ceremony.

Sigma Pi Sigma exists to honor outstanding scholarship in physics; to encourage interest in physics among students at all levels; to promote an attitude of service of its members towards their fellow students, colleagues, and the public; to provide a fellowship of persons who have excelled in physics. Sigma Pi Sigma's mission is not completed in the induction ceremony with the recognition of academic accomplishment. In the four dimensions of Honor, Encouragement, Service, and Fellowship, the mission of Sigma Pi Sigma takes a longer view.

Honor

Sigma Pi Sigma is the Physics Honor Society. Through election to Sigma Pi Sigma, distinctive achievement and high scholarship in physics are recognized and celebrated.

Encouragement

By honoring high achievement in physics and upholding high standards for election into Sigma Pi Sigma, the Society provides an incentive for all physics students to rise to excellence. Sigma Pi Sigma is a source of encouragement to all students who study physics, whatever the ultimate level of performance achieved by the individual. Such encouragement ranges from promoting physics interest and science literacy in the general public, to challenging those who are pondering their potential for earning higher degrees. Sigma Pi Sigma urges its members to demonstrate this encouragement through personal service.

Service

With the recognition of accomplishment comes a responsibility to service at all levels. Nationally, Sigma Pi Sigma members can serve by helping to work for sound national science policies. Locally, Sigma Pi Sigma members can serve in community science education projects and liasons, and in mentoring individual students. Such personal initiative provides opportunities for all members of the local community to learn more about physics, and provides visible testimony to the high standards of Sigma Pi Sigma membership. Our colleges, universities, and our Society know that when we become alumni, because we respect the personal struggle for excellence, we will support the generations of students that follow us. When the experience of Sigma Pi Sigma members is placed at the service of others at any level, then Sigma Pi Sigma touches more lives than may be counted by the number of its members.

Service towards others is an offering of fellowship. This is another mission that our honor society fulfills through its members.

Fellowship

The criterion of Sigma Pi Sigma membership is proven excellence in physics. There are no generational boundaries. The first members were inducted in 1921 and new members are added every year. Sigma Pi Sigma members represent many generations of experience and wisom that can be focused on the matters that unite us.

In Sigma Pi Sigma there are no professional boundaries. One finds all professions represented in Sigma Pi Sigma membership. There are many practicing physicists among Simga Pi Sigma members, but excellence in physics has opened many career options to our members. Through their lives, physics has enriched the world beyond the narrow scope of the physics community. Sigma Pi Sigma reaches beyond specific disciplines, uniting a diverse group of exceptional people who have shared in the culture and traditions of physics. With the common thread of this shared background in physics running through so rich a diversity of generations and professions, Sigma Pi Sigma promotes a spirit of community among its members and encourages them to offer their collective wisdom and perspectives in the service of the larger society.

Brief History:

Began in 1920 at Davidson College, Davidson, North Carolina
Officially founded on December 11, 1921.
Went national on April 12, 1925.
First national convention held at Davidson College in 1928 with all of the existing five chapters participating.
By 1930 there were 19 chapters and by 1941 there were 39.
In 1950 there were 78 chapters and 100 in 1959.
Sigma Pi Sigma joined with the American Institute of Physics Student Sections in 1968 and membership increased from 170 in 1968 to 220 within a year.
Currently over 400 chapters with more than 58,000 members (about 2,500 are active and the rest are alumni members).
Third national convention at Purdue University in 1934 changed the "fraternity" to a "society" and removed all elements of secrecy.
In 1936 Sigma Pi Sigma became and Associated Society, and in 1956 an Affiliated Society, of Section B, the Physics Section, of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
In 1945 Sigma Pi Sigma was made a member of the prestigious Association of College Honor Societies.
In 1951 Sigma Pi Sigma was elected to the status of an Affiliated Society of the American Institute of Physics.
On April 22, 1968 in Washington, D.C., the Society of Physics Students was formed, with Sigma Pi Sigma included as an Honor Society within the framework of the Society of Physics Students.

Address:

Society of Physics Students -- Sigma Pi Sigma
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse
College Park, MD 20740

TEL: (301) 209-3007
FAX: (301) 209-0839

Notes:

Sigma Pi Sigma celebrated its 75th anniversary in 1996.

Phi Kappa Phi (at Villanova) -- all fields

Purpose

The primary objective of the national Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi is the recognition and encouragement of superior scholarship in all academic disciplines. The Society is convinced that in recognizing and honoring those persons of good character who have excelled in scholarship, in whatever field, it will stimulate others to strive for excellence. Moreover, the Society serves the interests of the student capable of excellence by insisting that in order to acquire a chapter of Phi Kappa Phi, an institution provide the means and atmosphere conducive to academic excellence.

Requirements

Undergraduate students may be considered who have senior status and are scholastically in the upper 10 percent (or less, if the chapter's bylaws so provide) of their class; or who have reached the final period of their junior year and are scholastically in the upper five percent (or less, if the chapter's bylaws so stipulate) of their class. In no case, however, may the total number of undergraduates elected in any one year exceed 10 percent of the candidates for graduation in that year.

Motto

Let the love of learning rule humanity.

[Phi iota lambda omicron sigma omicron phi iota' alpha
Kappa rho alpha tau epsilon iota' tau omega
Phi omega tau omega^ nu]

                      _   _ _
(Philosophi^a Kratei^to Photo^n)

The Badge and Key

The badge of this Society, which appears on the key, is a globe against the background of the sun, whose rays form an expansive corona and radiate in a number of symmetrical concentrations from behind the globe. These signify equivalence among the various branches of learning and represent the dissemination of truth as light. Encircling the globe is a band containing the Greek letters Phi Kappa Phi and symbolizing a fraternal bond which girds the earth and binds the lovers of wisdom in a common purpose.

The Ribbon

The ribbon of the Society is a meander pattern which is common in ancient Greek art and which thus symbolizes the classical features of the Society.

The Seal

The seal of the Society has at its center the badge. This in turn is surrounded by a crenelated line which represents the battlements and walls of Troy and which symbolizes a technological aspect of the ancient Greek culture reflected by the Society. In the space between this line and the periphery of the seal appear three stars just above the badge, one for each of the three original chapters. Just below the badge is the phrase "Founded 1897."

Brief History:

Founded in 1897 at the University of Maine.
Originally named the Lambda Sigma Eta Society.
Named changed a year or so later to the Morrill Society, in honor of the sponsor of the Congressional Act which provided for land-grant colleges.
In 1900 it was transformed into a national society by action of a committee composed of the presidents of the University of Maine, the University of Tennessee, and Pennsylvania State College (now the Pennsylvania State University). The chapters in these institutions are the founging chapters.
The Society was renamed Phi Kappa Phi from its motto.

Address

Dr. John W. Warren, Executive Director
The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi
P.O. Box 16000
Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, LA 70893-6000

TEL: (504) 338-4917
TEL: 1-800-804-9880

Notes:

Phi Kappa Phi celebrated its 100th anniversary in 1997.
The first membership directory is scheduled for release in 2003. It will be available to members in printed book and computer CD-ROM formats. I believe pre-orders are required, so make sure you order one if you want a copy.

Phi Beta Kappa (at Villanova) -- Arts and Sciences

Purpose

Phi Beta Kappa [is] the nation's oldest and most prestigious undergraduate honors organization. For more than 200 years, the Society has pursued its mission of fostering and recognizing excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, and its distinctive emblem, a golden key, is widely recognized as a symbol of academic distinction.

Requirements

In order to gain election, you must have excelled in a broad array of undergraduate courses in the arts and sciences offered at one of the 249 colleges and universities in the United States that are sufficiently rigorous and intellectually challenging to shelter a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. By your election to Phi Beta Kappa, you have shown a devotion to intellectual pursuits and the objectives of a liberal education.

Motto

Love of wisdom, the guide of life.

[Phi iota lambda omicron sigma omicron phi iota' alpha
Beta iota' omicron upsilon
Kappa upsilon beta epsilon rho nu eta' tau eta sigma]

The Key

The emblem adopted at the first meeting of the Society was a square silver medal, engraved on one side with the letters S P, the initials of the Latin Societas Philosophiae, and on the other side with [the Greek letters] Phi Beta Kappa, the initials of the Greek motto [see above]. A pointing finger and three stars symbolized the ambition of the young scholars and the three distinguishing principles of their Society -- friendship, morality, and literature [learning]. The present day gold key [standardized in 1917] incorporates the letters S P and the original symbols, the pointing finger and the three stars, much as they appeared on the original 18-th Century William and Mary medal.

Brief History

Founded on December 5, 1776 at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. The first society to have a Greek letter name.
The original Phi Beta Kappa Society at William and Mary had an active life of only four years, ending when the approach of Cornwallis's army forced the college to close its doors.
First two expansions were Harvard and Yale (given charters on December 4 and 9, 1779, respectively) established on September 5, 1781 and November 13, 1780, respectively.
The Harvard charter with its original ribbons described in the minutes of 1782 as "pink and sky blue," colors still used today on each new charter.
The William and Mary chapter was inactive from 1780 to 1851 and again from early in the Civil War until 1893, but the Harvard chapter has never been inactive and the Yale chapter was inactive only from 1871 to 1874.
Ralph Waldo Emerson delivered an oration at the 1937 celebration at Harvard entitled "The American Scholar," later adopted as the name of the Phi Beta Kappa Society's journal.
Fifty years after the Society's extension into New England, only four additional chapters had been founded.
Fifteen additional chapters were established in the succeeding 30 years.
By 1883 at the time of the founding of the United Chapters of Phi Beta Kappa, which provided a unified organization for the Society, 25 chapters had been chartered, although not all were active, and about 14,000 persons had been elected to membership.
In 1831, the requirement of secrecy was removed at Harvard and although some chapters kept it, all chapters eliminated it by 1883 when they were unified.
In time, it went from a fraternity to an honor society.
Women were first admitted in 1875 at the University of Vermont.
In the years since the organization of the United Chapters, the number of chapters has increased from 25 to 249, and the membership from 14,000 to more than 600,000.
In 1900, when the first general catalogue was published, the living membership was about 10,500. It is now more than 500,000.
In 1988 delegates assembled at the 35th Council voted to changed the organization's name [from "United Chapters"] to "The Phi Beta Kappa Society." It now appears on all of the organization's legal documents and publications.

Address

The Phi Beta Kappa Society
1811 Q Street, NW
Washington, DC 20009

TEL: (202) 265-3808
FAX: (202) 986-1601

Notes:

The new Membership Directory 2000 has been published and was made available to members in printed book and computer CD-ROM formats. I believe pre-orders were required, so you may not be able to get one if you don't already have it. The last major update to the directory was made in 1940.

James Marshall
marshall@astro.umd.edu (plain ASCII text only, please, here's why)
This page was last updated on October 17, 2002.

This page has been accessed 15,207 times since 13-Oct-96 CronCount

View standard disclaimer for my personal web pages.