Elon marks an important milestone on April 13 during Convocation for Honors when the Phi Beta Kappa Society, the nation’s oldest and most prestigious academic honors society, installs a chapter at the university
Phi Beta Kappa is the nation’s oldest and most prestigious academic society. About 10 percent of U.S. colleges and universities shelter Phi Beta Kappa chapters, and Elon becomes only the seventh institution in North Carolina to meet the high standards of excellence in the arts and sciences advocated by the Society.
Following the convocation and chapter installation, there will be a reception for Elon Society members, Phi Beta Kappa members, students to be inducted into the society and their families, and other invited guests at the Lindner Hall patio. Elon’s inaugural Phi Beta Kappa student members will be formally inducted at a 7:30 p.m. ceremony in McKinnon Hall of the Moseley Center.
Elon’s new Phi Beta Kappa Commons will be dedicated earlier in the day at the university’s weekly College Coffee gathering.
Phi Beta Kappa Society President Fred H. Cate, Phi Beta Kappa Society Secretary John Churchill, and Don Wyatt, a Phi Beta Kappa Senate member who led the team visiting Elon during the application process, will visit Elon for the installtion.
Elon’s faculty received approval to establish a Phi Beta Kappa chapter on Oct. 2, 2009, at the Society’s 42nd Triennial Council in Austin, Texas. Typically, students chosen for Phi Beta Kappa membership rank among the top 10 percent of arts and sciences majors, and have demonstrated outstanding scholarship, leadership, multicultural awareness and foreign language proficiency.
Fifty-seven current Elon faculty and staff members are Phi Beta Kappa members. The new Eta Chapter is headed by Russell Gill, Elon’s Maude Sharpe Powell Professor of English and Distinguished University Professor; associate professor of English Jean Schwind serves as vice president; and math instructor Helen Walton serves as chapter secretary/historian/treasurer.