LETTER: Texas Phi Beta Kappa not part of trend

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by Kerry Keck

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To the editor:

As Felisa Yang mentions in the March 29 issue of the Thresher ("Students reject Phi Beta Kappa"), membership in Phi Beta Kappa is offered to those graduating seniors whose academic performance has been truly outstanding in an undergraduate career that reflects the pursuit of learning for its own sake, rather than focus on the development of particular vocational skills.

To be eligible for consideration, a student at Rice must have completed at least 90 semester hours in liberal arts courses and at least 10 of these qualifying courses must be outside the division in which the student's major(s) lies.

Our chapter of Phi Beta Kappa has not experienced the national trend of rejected memberships mentioned in Yang's article. The officers attribute this (at least partially) to two factors.

First, the Beta of Texas chapter's local fees have been kept to a minimum and the chapter provides help to any student on whom the initiation fee poses a hardship.

Second, this is an academic community which recognizes and honors excellence, and Phi Beta Kappa is one of the ways by which we do so.

We invite all members of the Rice community to join us at the Phi Beta Kappa initiation to honor our outstanding graduates at 2:45 p.m. on May 10, the day before commencement. It will be held in Hamman Hall.

Kerry A. Keck

Secretary

Beta of Texas Chapter

This item appeared in the Opinion section of the April 19, 1996 issue.

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