Graduate Students to Be Inducted

Delegates at the national convention on March 17, 2007, voted to amend the Constitution of Alpha Chi to create a new membership status for graduate students. The change, effective immediately, allows chapters to induct graduate or professional students at their institutions.

The vote approved the addition of this section to Article X:

Sec. 3. Graduate Student Membership

a. Membership shall be restricted to graduate students who have completed not fewer than fifteen semester hours of graduate credit.

b. The faculty, or appropriate committee thereof, of any institution shall have the sole power of selection for graduate members of Alpha Chi. It shall set its own standard of scholarship for induction, except that not more than the top-ranking 10 percent of students classified as graduate students, including those previously elected to membership, may be elected to membership.

In a memo to chapter sponsors, Executive Director Dennis Organ explained why the Council recommended the proposal and offered assurances that the society’s traditional focus on undergraduate students would not be eroded:

“The intent of the National Council was to enlarge the scope and attractiveness of Alpha Chi, but foremost in all the discussions was the insistence that the undergraduate emphasis not be diluted. The initiative for this change came originally from a sponsor at one of our largest universities, who believed that Alpha Chi was at a competitive disadvantage on his campus because other honor societies offered membership to graduate students and therefore seemed more appropriate to his institution, which has numerous graduate programs and students. . . . My belief is that Alpha Chi can honor its historic commitment to the recognition and promotion of scholarship among college juniors and seniors and also extend that benefit to graduate students. Many of our institutions are already serving graduate populations, and I think Alpha Chi can too.

Organ added that the National Council had amended the Bylaws to specify that only undergraduate members would be eligible for election to the National Council and that policies on scholarships, fellowships, and convention presentation prizes were being retained so that existing national opportunities for undergraduate members would not be reduced by competition from graduate student members.

Graduate members, however, will be eligible for awards in the Pryor Alumni Fellowship category and will not be excluded from holding chapter offices if the local chapter agrees.