Excellence Across Disciplines
On May 6, UMBC will become home to an honor society that reflects the diversity of student interests when the newest chapter of Phi Kappa Phi is installed.
“Phi Kappa Phi is the oldest all-discipline honor society in the country,” explained Beth Wells, assistant vice provost for academic affairs. It accepts students of any major who are in the top 10 percent of their senior class or the top seven and a half percent of the junior class. Distinguished graduate students, alumni, faculty and staff can also be invited to join.
Phi Kappa Phi members are eligible for fellowships, grants and awards through the society, which awards over $800,000 annually. “There’s quite a bit of support. The enterprising student can really do well,” said Marilyn Demorest, professor of psychology.
UMBC students have traditionally been invited to membership in Phi Kappa Phi through the University of Maryland chapter, which covered five of the University System of Maryland’s institutions. But because chapter leadership was spread over the five schools, not many events took place on each campus. And when it came time to nominate students for fellowships, the chapter was limited to sending just one nominee.
The idea to create separate chapters was introduced last year, and the old University of Maryland Chapter was closed to new members last June. This spring, four new chapters will replace it. UMBC’s chapter of Phi Kappa Phi will be known as the University of Maryland, Baltimore Campuses (UMB-UMBC) chapter, a designation that will be shared with University of Maryland Baltimore.
“We did go through a formal process of submitting a petition, creating bylaws and identifying potential charter members. It was rather abbreviated because they already had a history with each of the campuses,” said Demorest.
The 22 charter members for the new chapter include President Freeman Hrabowski and other campus leaders from UMBC and UMB. Over 700 students and alumni have been invited to be initiated at the installation ceremony, which will be held in the University Center Ballroom, of which about 500 are UMBC students. This includes the students who became eligible this semester, as well as students who became eligible after the University of Maryland chapter was closed.
As students are initiated, they will be invited to sign a chapter membership book, which the charter members will also sign. (UMBC alumni who were initiated into Phi Kappa Phi under the former chapter will remain members of that chapter, or they can change their chapter designation by calling 800-804-9880, ext. 11).
Now that UMBC is home to a Baltimore-specific chapter, organizers hope that Phi Kappa Phi will be more active on campus. Potential events include bringing speakers to campus and research presentations by members. “These are things we can do now that we have more than one person on the campus involved,” said Demorest.
(4/30/10)
