Gamma of Tennessee received the highest possible score for 2011-12 from Phi Beta Kappa, America’s oldest collegiate honor society. The Rhodes chapter was one of only 20 nationwide to earn this exceptional rating. (The 2012-2013 annual report has been submitted for its review to be reported next year.)
Rhodes was praised for “the range of awards, lectures, and outreach programs” that its chapter sponsors at the college as well as in the greater Memphis community. The chapter now will be considered for the Exemplary Chapter Award, to be presented at the 2015 Triennial Council in Denver, CO.
Founded in 1776, Phi Beta Kappa’s chapters invite for induction the most outstanding liberal arts students at America’s leading colleges and universities. Fewer than one percent of U.S. college graduates are eligible. The organization champions the liberal arts—the humanities, the social sciences, and the natural sciences—in higher education and in society at large.
Rhodes’ Phi Beta Kappa chapter was installed on Dec. 5, 1949 and is one of only 283 chapters in the United States. In addition to recognizing outstanding students and awarding the college’s highest academic honor (the Peyton Nalle Rhodes Prize), the chapter sponsors lectures by distinguished visiting scholars. Phi Beta Kappa currently is led by Dr. John Churchill, who graduated from Rhodes (then Southwestern) in 1971.
Memphis will host the ACAD/Phi Beta Kappa conference "Is There a Case for the Liberal Arts?" Oct. 17-19. The program will include a panel discussion on Oct. 18 with members of Rhodes’ Board of Trustees. For more information about the conference, contact Scott Newstok: newstoks@rhodes.edu