About The Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society

• Reasons to Support Phi Kappa Phi
• Purpose
• Eligibility
• Membership
• Meetings and Activities
• Publications
• Fellowships
• History
• Contact Information

• Excellence. By attending Phi Kappa Phi events, you support academic excellence with outstanding students, faculty and alumni.

• Scholarships. By maintaining your active membership in Phi Kappa Phi, you help support scholarships, fellowships and special awards at Brigham Young University.

• Awards. Each year Phi Kappa Phi cash awards awards to student winners of the Phi Kappa Phi Paper Competition. Phi Eta Sigma co-sponsors the Freshman Student Awards.

• Fellowships. Your dues also support the national Phi Kappa Phi Graduate Fellowship Program. For the last 24 years, our BYU student nominee has been awarded one of the fellowships for support of graduate study. Phi Eta Sigma dues support the national Phi Eta Sigma Scholarship program.

• Honoraria. Our chapter provides a $1,000 honorarium to the annual BYU Phi Kappa Phi Distinguished Faculty Award recipient.

• Publications. Membership in Phi Kappa Phi entitles you to excellent publications: National Forum, a quarterly, scholarly journal and Phi Kappa Phi Newsletter. Similarly, membership in Phi Eta Sigma includes Forum of Phi Eta Sigma.

The criteria and limits observed in electing persons to membership are determined by each individual chapter, but always within the framework of the Society's Bylaws. The conditions set forth in the Bylaws may be summarized as follows:

Undergraduate students may be considered who have senior status and are scholastically in the upper 10 percent of their class; or who have reached the final period of their junior year and are scholastically in the upper 7.5 percent 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 that year.

Graduate students may be elected, but their number must not exceed 10 percent of the number of candidates for graduate degrees during the year.

Faculty members and alumni who have achieved scholarly distinction may be elected to membership in limited numbers.

An occasional honorary or distinguished member may be elected by a chapter, with the approval of the Board of Directors.

• Phi Kappa Phi is an honor society, not an honorary society or fraternity. Membership is earned; it is a true honor.

• Meeting Phi Kappa Phi's criteria signifies excellence, which in turn, signifies distinction.

• Because of their outstanding records, members of Phi Kappa Phi often are preferred candidates for grants, scholarships and fellowships from institutions where they may continue their education or do research. When they seek jobs, they find their Phi Kappa Phi membership is widely accepted as an indicator of academic ability and motivation.

• Phi Kappa Phi, being interdisciplinary and thus drawing membership from all colleges, divisions, or departments within the academic institution, is a unifying force in education today. It is in a unique position to cultivate consciousness of relationships by bringing together individuals from a variety of disciplines. It promotes the intellectual life of the community.

• The academic variety within the Society's membership acquaints initiates with many options if they are in the process of trying to decide upon a career.

• Members are eligible for Phi Kappa Phi Fellowships

• Active members receive National Forum: The Phi Kappa Phi Journal, enabling them to keep abreast of significant cultural, social and scientific issues.

• Active members receive the Newsletter, enabling them to share in the national activities and programs of the Society and of its members.

• Phi Kappa Phi insists upon high quality in the institutions to which it grants charters, e.g., strong faculties and ample libraries. It thus fulfills an obligation to assure its initiates that they are coming into a truly significant organization.

• Phi Kappa Phi provides for the association of kindred spirits - kindred in the sense of having integrity of character and the highest ideals, as well as an abiding love of learning.

The Society is governed ultimately by the Triennial Convention, supplemented by any interim - though rare - special conventions deemed necessary. Each chapter may send one official delegate to a convention. Between conventions, the business of the Society is conducted by the Board of Directors, composed of 12 directors, of whom nine are elective (president, president-elect, a national vice president, five regional vice presidents, and the immediate past president) and three are appointive (executive director of the Society, regent and director of fellowships). The executive director is in charge of the Society's national office.

Every chapter must hold at least two meetings a year and is encouraged to be active in various ways. Many chapters cite students for excellence as early as the freshman year. Some sponsor an annual Honors Day. Many of them grant awards or give scholarships to students and researchers doing work of scholarly quality. Some also extend recognition to superior teachers. The aim, however, is not to give the recipient something which may encourage complacency, but to challenge the member to continued excellence.




Publications

The Society publishes a quarterly journal for distribution to its active membership. Each issue of National Forum is devoted to a significant theme and addresses prominent issues of the day from an interdisciplinary perspective. The journal features articles by scholars inside and outside the academic community. In addition to timely articles, each issue of National Forum contains selected poetry and reviews of current books and periodical literature.

Active members of the Society also receive bimonthly issues of the Phi Kappa Phi Newsletter. The Newsletter features news items of interest to members on both the national and local levels.




Fellowships

The Phi Kappa Phi Foundation was incorporated in 1969 to promote academic excellence and achievement by means of scholarships and fellowships. To support first-year graduate work, the Society offers annually through the Foundation 60 Fellowships and 40 Award of Excellance, on a competitive basis, to graduating students who have been initiated into the Society and who have also been nominated by their chapters for the competition.

Many chapters also have their own local scholarship program.




History

n 1897 a group of 10 students at the University of Maine, who perceived a need for an honor society on broader lines than any then in existence, was assisted by interested professors to organize the Lambda Sigma Eta Society. 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 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 founding chapters. The Society was renamed Phi Kappa Phi, from the initial letters of the Greek words forming its adopted motto: Philosophia Krateito Photon, "Let the love of learning rule humanity." Phi Kappa Phi currently has chapters in institutions from Maine to the Philippines and from Alaska to Puerto Rico.

The history of the Society has been recorded in two volumes, In Pursuit of Excellence: The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, 1897-1971 by Edward Schriver and Making Heroes of Scholars: The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, 1971-1983 by Neal O'Steen. Both are available from the National Office.




Contact Information

For further information contact:

director@phikappaphi.org