Phi Beta Kappa

The purpose of Phi Beta Kappa is to recognize and encourage scholarship, friendship, and cultural interests, and to support excellence and integrity in the pursuit of the liberal arts and sciences.

Phi Beta Kappa at NC State University
Zeta of North Carolina Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa was founded at North Carolina State University on April 17, 1995. Establishment of Zeta Chapter reflects national recognition of the outstanding quality of the students, programs, and resources for undergraduate education in the arts and sciences at NC State.

Election to Phi Beta Kappa recognizes intellectual capacities well employed, especially in acquiring an education in the liberal arts and sciences.

The objectives of humane learning encouraged by Phi Beta Kappa include the acquisition of knowledge and the cultivation of understanding, support for intellectual honesty and tolerance, and the development of breadth in the range of intellectual interests.

For More Information
About the national Phi Beta Kappa Society, please visit the national Phi Beta Kappa web site at: www.pbk.org/

About Phi Beta Kappa at NC State University, contact Professor Thomas R. Wentworth, Secretary, by mail at Box 7612, NC State Campus, by phone at 515 - 2168, or by e-mail at tom_wentworth@ncsu.edu.

The Phi Beta Kappa Key
The symbol of Phi Beta Kappa is the key, inscribed with the letters S P, the Greek letters Phi Beta Kappa, a pointing finger, three stars, and the date of founding, December 5, 1776. The Greek letters are the initials of the society's motto, Philosophia Biou Kybernetes, "The love of wisdom is the guide of life." The letters S P are the initials of the Latin words Societas Philosophiae. The pointing finger and the three stars symbolize the ambitions of young scholars and the three distinguishing principles of the Society -- friendship, morality, learning.

The History of Phi Beta Kappa
Phi Beta Kappa was founded at the College of William and Mary in 1776. Chapters were established at Harvard, Yale, and Dartmouth before the end of the 18th century, setting a pattern for slow expansion that has continued to the present. In 1994, there were 242 chapters at colleges and universities throughout the United States.

In ceremonies on April 17, 1995, officials of the national Phi Beta Kappa Society conferred upon the Phi Beta Kappa faculty at NC State University their charter as Zeta of North Carolina chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. The new chapter then elected officers and initiated the first undergraduate members of Phi Beta Kappa elected from the NC State University student body. Phi Beta Kappa leaders attending the ceremony included Charles Blitzer, national president of Phi Beta Kappa, who is also a former Director of the National Humanities Center in Research Triangle Park.

Phi Beta Kappa in North Carolina
The chapter at NC State University is the sixth chapter on the campus of a college or university in North Carolina, and the first new chapter in this state since the establishment of Delta of North Carolina chapter at Wake Forest University in 1941. Other institutions housing chapters in North Carolina include the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Alpha, 1904), Duke University (Beta, 1920), Davidson College (Gamma, 1923) and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (Epsilon, 1934/1956). Epsilon chapter at UNC-Greensboro was originally chartered as a section of Alpha Chapter, but was granted a separate charter in 1956.

Standards for election-in-course of undergraduates to Phi Beta Kappa at NC State University
Standards for election to membership in Phi Beta Kappa are established by Phi Beta Kappa at the national level and adapted for use at the local level.
National stipulations for election to membership as undergraduates in Phi Beta Kappa include the following :

Undergraduates shall be elected primarily on the basis of broad cultural interests, scholarly achievement, and good character.

Candidates shall be majoring in the liberal arts and sciences and be pursuing degree programs in a College of Arts and Sciences or its equivalent in which at least three-fourths of the course work is in the liberal arts and sciences. Students must have at least second semester junior rank and have completed at least three full semesters of work at the host institution.

Basic eligibility requirements for undergraduate students
Students are eligible for election who are pursuing a liberal bachelor's degree at NC State University. Zeta Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa considers the liberal bachelor's degree to include degrees awarded to majors in all departments in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, all departments in the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, the basic science departments in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the Department of Psychology in the College of Education and Psychology, and the Department of Economics in the College of Management.

Zeta Chapter elects to membership students who have demonstrated outstanding academic achievement. Our bylaws state: "The number of undergraduates elected from any class, including those who may be elected as juniors, shall ordinarily not exceed ten percent, and in no case shall exceed fifteen percent, of the undergraduates expected to receive the liberal bachelor's degree in that class. A maximum of one-fifth of the members elected from any class may be elected on the basis of junior standing."

Students pursuing dual degree programs in which one of the degree programs is in the arts and sciences may become eligible for election to Phi Beta Kappa upon completion of 76 credit hours in the qualifying arts and sciences degree program, and upon meeting the additional criteria for election.

A student enrolled in curricula not automatically reviewed by Zeta of North Carolina (see below) and who believes that his or her particular degree program and academic achievement meet the standards for election as set forth above may petition for consideration by the chapter.

Election to membership in Phi Beta Kappa is wholly within the discretion of the members of Zeta of North Carolina Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. Election must be from among students who conform to minimum standards set by the national Phi Beta Kappa Society as interpreted by Zeta of North Carolina Chapter.

Curricula automatically reviewed for academically eligible students include LAA, LTA, LAC, LCC, LCD, LCM, LCP, LCT, LAF, LTF, LAH, LTH, LAL, LPL, LAM, LAN, LTN, LWE, LAP, LJP, LLP, LTP, LAS, LCS, LJS, LTS, LRS, LSH, LSL, LSM, LSN, LSP, LSW, CH, CHM, CHA, ESA, ESG, EST, GYA, GYS, GYM, MA, MAA, MY, MMY, NRC, NRG, PY, PYM, ST, BCH, BLS, BSN, ESC, ESE, SBO, SMB, SDM, SJS, SRS, SZM, SZO, EC, ECS, PSY, HRD.

Academic averages are computed on the basis of credit hours taken at NCSU and include only letter grade hours (ABCDF), not Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory (S/U hours). Advanced Placement hours can count in the computation of hours for class standing but not toward the total of hours required to be taken at NC State University.