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Phi Kappa Phi
The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi (or simply Phi Kappa Phi or ΦΚΦ) is an honor society established in 1897 to recognize and encourage superior scholarship without restriction as to the area of study. It was the fourth academic society in the United States to be organized around recognizing academic excellence, and it is the oldest all-discipline honor society. It is a member of the Honor Society Caucus.
In the late 1800s, there were only three academic honor societies, and they were all discipline-specific. Tau Beta Pi for engineering and Sigma Xi for scientific research were founded in 1885 and 1886, respectively. Phi Beta Kappa was a social and literary society that did not originate as an honor society when it was founded in 1776, but by the 1850s, it had evolved as an honor society for the liberal arts and sciences. Although Phi Beta Kappa was not exclusive to one discipline, it did not extend its membership beyond the liberal arts and sciences, hence the establishment of Tau Beta Pi, an honor society for engineering. Phi Beta Kappa became sufficient as an all-campus honor society for liberal arts colleges, but no honor society could serve as such for the universities encompassing both liberal education and also technological and professional education, a mission to which the newly burgeoning land-grant universities of the time were dedicated.
That changed in 1897 when the first organizational meeting of Lambda Sigma Eta (later named Phi Kappa Phi), the nation's first all-discipline honor society, was held in Coburn Hall at the University of Maine under the leadership of undergraduate student Marcus Urann. In opposition to what he saw as the separateness and exclusivity promoted by the social fraternities and discipline bound honor societies, Urann wanted to create a society that was defined by inclusiveness and that unified a campus, constituted by "high-rank men drawn from all classes and all groups and all societies". The honor society was formed to recognize and encourage superior scholarship without restriction as to the area of study, and to promote the "unity and democracy of education".
Those selected for invitation into the society would be the top ten students of the senior class whose rank did not fall below the 90th percentile for the four years of work at the university. In all, the society was founded by ten senior students, two faculty members, and the university president, Abram Winegaard Harris. Urann graduated in 1897, and became the president of Phi Kappa. A year or so later, the name was changed to the Morrill Society, in honor of the sponsor of the Congressional Act which provided for land-grant universities. In 1899, the first woman was initiated into the society, Pearl Clayton Swain.
In 1900, the society became national in scope by action of the presidents of the University of Maine (the founding chapter), University of Tennessee, and Pennsylvania State University. There was considerable debate among the three existing chapters regarding the purpose and naming of the society. Pennsylvania State University's President George W. Atherton cautioned that using Greek letters to label the society would be "too much like aping other organizations", and President Charles W. Dabney of the University of Tennessee did not want to accept institutions that already had a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. Nonetheless, on June 12, 1900, the society changed its name to Phi Kappa Phi, drawing from the initial letters of the Greek words forming its motto.
In 1900, the three original chapters convened the society's first national convention in New Haven, Connecticut. In 1915, Phi Kappa Phi continued to struggle to earn a reputation. The then secretary of the organization, L. H. Pammel, pointed out that institutions that were seeking to establish a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa were often hesitant about establishing a chapter of Phi Kappa Phi. To this, the society continued to make its case:
Phi Beta Kappa, which was repeated time after time, represented the literary side of education such as history, literature, and economics. 'The Phi Kappa Phi on the other hand stands not only for the democracy of education, making no distinction between different lines of investigation, such as literature, history, science, home economics, agriculture, veterinary medicine, and law, but for sound scholarship based on four years of collegiate work.'
It was later asserted that the society's aim was not to replace older societies, but to "help raise the broader educational program initiated by our government when it established the land-grant system, to the appreciation of scholarly worth whether the subject matter be strictly academic or of a more vocational type." Its mission is "to recognize and promote academic excellence in all fields of higher education and to engage the community of scholars in service to others."
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Phi Kappa Phi
The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi (or simply Phi Kappa Phi or ΦΚΦ) is an honor society established in 1897 to recognize and encourage superior scholarship without restriction as to the area of study. It was the fourth academic society in the United States to be organized around recognizing academic excellence, and it is the oldest all-discipline honor society. It is a member of the Honor Society Caucus.
In the late 1800s, there were only three academic honor societies, and they were all discipline-specific. Tau Beta Pi for engineering and Sigma Xi for scientific research were founded in 1885 and 1886, respectively. Phi Beta Kappa was a social and literary society that did not originate as an honor society when it was founded in 1776, but by the 1850s, it had evolved as an honor society for the liberal arts and sciences. Although Phi Beta Kappa was not exclusive to one discipline, it did not extend its membership beyond the liberal arts and sciences, hence the establishment of Tau Beta Pi, an honor society for engineering. Phi Beta Kappa became sufficient as an all-campus honor society for liberal arts colleges, but no honor society could serve as such for the universities encompassing both liberal education and also technological and professional education, a mission to which the newly burgeoning land-grant universities of the time were dedicated.
That changed in 1897 when the first organizational meeting of Lambda Sigma Eta (later named Phi Kappa Phi), the nation's first all-discipline honor society, was held in Coburn Hall at the University of Maine under the leadership of undergraduate student Marcus Urann. In opposition to what he saw as the separateness and exclusivity promoted by the social fraternities and discipline bound honor societies, Urann wanted to create a society that was defined by inclusiveness and that unified a campus, constituted by "high-rank men drawn from all classes and all groups and all societies". The honor society was formed to recognize and encourage superior scholarship without restriction as to the area of study, and to promote the "unity and democracy of education".
Those selected for invitation into the society would be the top ten students of the senior class whose rank did not fall below the 90th percentile for the four years of work at the university. In all, the society was founded by ten senior students, two faculty members, and the university president, Abram Winegaard Harris. Urann graduated in 1897, and became the president of Phi Kappa. A year or so later, the name was changed to the Morrill Society, in honor of the sponsor of the Congressional Act which provided for land-grant universities. In 1899, the first woman was initiated into the society, Pearl Clayton Swain.
In 1900, the society became national in scope by action of the presidents of the University of Maine (the founding chapter), University of Tennessee, and Pennsylvania State University. There was considerable debate among the three existing chapters regarding the purpose and naming of the society. Pennsylvania State University's President George W. Atherton cautioned that using Greek letters to label the society would be "too much like aping other organizations", and President Charles W. Dabney of the University of Tennessee did not want to accept institutions that already had a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. Nonetheless, on June 12, 1900, the society changed its name to Phi Kappa Phi, drawing from the initial letters of the Greek words forming its motto.
In 1900, the three original chapters convened the society's first national convention in New Haven, Connecticut. In 1915, Phi Kappa Phi continued to struggle to earn a reputation. The then secretary of the organization, L. H. Pammel, pointed out that institutions that were seeking to establish a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa were often hesitant about establishing a chapter of Phi Kappa Phi. To this, the society continued to make its case:
Phi Beta Kappa, which was repeated time after time, represented the literary side of education such as history, literature, and economics. 'The Phi Kappa Phi on the other hand stands not only for the democracy of education, making no distinction between different lines of investigation, such as literature, history, science, home economics, agriculture, veterinary medicine, and law, but for sound scholarship based on four years of collegiate work.'
It was later asserted that the society's aim was not to replace older societies, but to "help raise the broader educational program initiated by our government when it established the land-grant system, to the appreciation of scholarly worth whether the subject matter be strictly academic or of a more vocational type." Its mission is "to recognize and promote academic excellence in all fields of higher education and to engage the community of scholars in service to others."
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