(sent on behalf of Phi Beta Kappa)

Dear Faculty,
 
Some new to Colorado College may wonder what this Phi Beta Kappa ballot is all about. The Phi Beta Kappa Society is the oldest national honor society, dedicated to recognizing exceptional undergraduate achievement and advocating for the liberal arts since 1776. Membership in the Phi Beta Kappa Society highlights our students’ merit in a manner that is recognized nationwide by graduate schools and employers. In addition, membership makes these students eligible to receive scholarships for graduate study. 
 
CC’s chapter - Beta of Colorado - was chartered in 1904. Our system of electing students to membership has evolved over the past 116 years. In the early days, faculty members of the chapter sat around a table evaluating transcripts to make sure candidates, true to the liberal arts, had taken a broad selection of courses. That procedure inevitably produced disagreement among chapter members, and it idiosyncratically advantaged and disadvantaged the candidates known to those PBK members who happened to be around the table. In the 1960's the chapter realized that considering grades alone, however, also had its drawbacks as many students in those days eschewed letter grades for the Pass/Fail option. In the 1970's, with the help of Mathematics Professor Will Gateley, the chapter arrived at a solution that addresses these concerns, and it is the one we still employ today.
 
In general, the Society asks us to identify and admit candidates in the top 10% of the graduating class who have also met the national organization's stipulations for broad liberal arts courses of study (e.g., language, quantitative reasoning, etc.). Approximately half of the candidates we admit are elected based solely on grade point averages – we consider those in the top 5% of the graduating class who have also met PBK's stipulations to be indisputably meritorious. Then a candidate pool is constructed, consisting of the rest of the students with GPAs of 3.7 or higher who have also met the stipulations. Those candidates are placed on a ballot that is sent to all faculty members. By opening up the ballot to all teaching faculty, the chapter aims to identify the most meritorious students in an inclusive and open manner. The system standardizes faculty votes by accounting for how well the rater knows the candidate, as well as for how highly they are rated. The chapter elects candidates whose average scores and ratings standardized by faculty rater (z scores) put them at the top of the pool.
 
We are proud of our system of electing worthy students to the nation's oldest honor society, but its reliability and validity depend on your participation! So please take a moment to vote on this year's ballot and help us to assure that all meritorious students are given due consideration. You will find the ballot flagged in your Banner account under Faculty Services. Please evaluate students’ achievements on a scale of 0-8 and your familiarity with them on a scale of 0-4. 
 
Beta of Colorado appreciates your participation!
 
 


_________________________
Tomi-Ann Roberts, PhD
(rhymes with “Show Me Ann”)
 
Professor of Psychology
COLORADO COLLEGE 
14 E. Cache La Poudre St.
Colorado Springs, Colorado 80903 
(719)389-6838
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