February 27, 2008

Celebrating the Liberal Arts at Ohio Wesleyan: 100 Years of ΦΒΚ

As Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s oldest and best-known academic honor society, celebrates a century on the Ohio Wesleyan campus, Joe Musser, OWU English professor and president of the local chapter, has organized an all-campus convocation to be held at 7:30 p.m., March 5, in Gray Chapel. OWU students will re-enact their initiation ceremony, and three outstanding Ohio Wesleyan faculty will be named honorary members of the society: Jed Burtt; David Johnson; and Robert Olmstead. Phi Beta Kappa allows for the induction of honorary members who graduated at least 10 years ago, did not attend a Phi Beta Kappa sheltering institution, and deserve recognition for scholarly achievement after graduation.

John Churchill, secretary of Phi Beta Kappa, will deliver the ceremony’s keynote address.

Founded by five students at the College of William and Mary on December 5, 1776, Phi Beta Kappa was the nation’s first Greek letter organization. The letters that constitute the society’s name are the Greek initials of its motto: “Love of Learning is the Guide of Life.”

Only about 10 percent of the nation’s institutions of higher learning have Phi Beta Kappa chapters, and they admit approximately 10 percent of the nation’s liberal arts students—or about one senior student out of 100 nationwide—to membership. According to the society’s Web site, those who are invited to become members of Phi Beta Kappa have “pursued a broad program of study in the liberal arts and sciences.”

– Gretchen Hirsch