Who We Are: Background of Local & National Chapters
 
History

The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi was created as the Society of Lambda Sigma Eta in 1897 when the ten highest-ranking seniors at the University of Maine were elected to an honor group. In 1899, the group's name was changed to the Morrill Society to honor the senator who sponsored the act creating land-grant colleges. By 1900, the Society had adopted its present name and had installed chapters at the University of Tennessee and Pennsylvania State College (now The Pennsylvania State University). Phi Kappa Phi has nearly 300 active chapters nationwide. Lock Haven University's chapter was installed in 1975 as the Society's 179th.  It is the fifth of Pennsylvania's 18 chapters.

Eligibility & Selection

Once each semester students and faculty at LHU are invited by current members to join Phi Kappa Phi. To be eligible for membership on our campus, students must have a QPA of 3.5 or higher. Seniors must rank in the upper ten percent of their class while juniors must rank in the top 7.5 per cent. PKP is unique among national honor societies in that it recognizes scholarship in all academic disciplines, rather than restricting membership to a specific field of learning. The Society's Handbook notes: "Two things stand out, from the very beginning, as the guiding philosophies of Phi Kappa Phi. One is the conviction that by recognizing and honoring those students who have excelled in scholarship, other students may be inspired to work for high achievement.
The other is the equally strong belief that scholarship is not limited to any single field of endeavor but rather is universal. The first principle is a characteristic shared by all honor societies; the latter is unique in practice with Phi Kappa Phi."

Chapter Functions

At the local chapter's semi-annual gatherings, new members are inducted.  At the spring banquet, LHU students of academic distinction are honored: winner of the May Ireland PKP Scholarship; winners of the Honor Awards, which reduce a student's fall tuition bill; and winner of the annual competition to be named Lock Haven's candidate to compete for a Phi Kappa Phi Graduate Fellowship--one of 60 awarded nationwide--to help finance the first year of graduate study. Along with the Colleges of Arts & Sciences and Education & Human Services, the local chapter of PKP sponsors the annual Spring Student Symposium, the university's only public forum for students from every discipline to present their individual research and creative works.