BEYOND THE HEDGES: Students reject Phi Beta Kappa

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by Felisa Yang

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Increasingly, students are turning down invitations to join Phi Beta Kappa, to the dismay of administrators of the honor society.

Phi Beta Kappa was founded in 1776 and is the nation's oldest honor society. The organization recognizes academic achievement in the liberal arts.

College seniors are eligible if they are liberal-arts majors and in the top 10 percent of their class. Members must also have taken a wide variety of courses and have studied a foreign language.

Traditionally, invitations to the society have been considered a high honor and, for many, the zenith of their college careers. Today, however, many college students are not aware of the organization. Some of those who are familiar with it have chosen to turn down the invitation anyway, citing membership as resumé "fluff" or "filler."

Yet other students cite the membership dues as a negative incentive to joining. The Phi Beta Kappa national office has set the one-time dues at $20, but some schools add on extra fees up to $30 to cover the ceremony and other costs.

Amy Tolic, a graduate student in psychology at Wayne State University, turned down an invitation from the Wayne State chapter because of the costs.

"They sent me a bunch of information on it, but I just don't have the money right now," Tolic said.

"I graduated, I'm in my graduate program, and I'm concentrating on getting more scholarships. I'm saving every penny."

Some college officials believe that the trend is due, in part, to the abundance of honor societies, which deluge students with invitations and requests for membership dues. Students may not realize the significance of Phi Beta Kappa in the sea of honor societies.

Last year, 23 of 62 students who were issued invitations declined to accept. Half of the 102 invitees at Wayne State declined last spring, as did 56 of 145 students at the University of Texas at Austin.

Richard Nelson Current, a professor emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, sees the problem as one of recent trends toward anti-intellectualism.

"I wonder if it has anything to do with political correctness and deconstruction and all that," Current said.

Among Phi Beta Kappa members are John Quincy Adams, Nathaniel Hawthorne, George Bush, Bill Clinton and Buffalo Bills Head Coach Marv Levy. So far, none of the 62 nominees from Rice have declined.

Source: The Chronicle of Higher Education, March 22.

This item appeared in the News section of the March 29, 1996 issue.

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