Chapter Installation at Butler University in Indiana
Butler University became home to a new chapter of Phi Beta Kappa on February 4.
The installation ceremony for the Theta of Indiana chapter was combined with the university’s Founder’s Day Celebration on the Butler campus, entitled a “Celebration of Scholarship.”
Butler was one of four new chapters approved by the Society on Oct. 2 at the 42nd Triennial Council in Austin, Tx. Phi Beta Kappa Secretary John Churchill spoke at the event.
Twenty Butler faculty and staff members are Phi Beta Kappa members, including President Bobby Fong. Paul Valliere, McGregor Professor in the Humanities, chaired the committee that submitted Butler’s formal chapter application in October 2007.
“Butler’s application to shelter a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa required extensive documentation of the university’s commitment to the liberal arts,” Valliere said. “The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences is the oldest and largest of Butler’s five colleges, and the same liberal arts core curriculum is required of all Butler undergraduates regardless of their academic major.”
The application process included a two-day visit to Butler by a delegation from Phi Beta Kappa’s national Committee on Qualifications. The visitors’ group, chaired by Joseph Gordon of Yale University, assessed academic and non-academic programs at Butler, athletic policies and the University’s physical facilities, libraries and technological resources.
Laura Behling, associate provost for faculty affairs and interdisciplinary programs, commended her colleagues’ efforts. “The focus of so many Butler faculty and staff during the University’s journey toward Phi Beta Kappa status is a testament to their belief that the liberal arts and sciences offer the critical perspectives, intellectual vigor and freedom of thought,” she said.
“For more than 150 years, Butler University has focused on creating a learning environment rooted in excellence in the liberal arts and sciences and focused on our students. Our committed faculty take seriously their responsibility to challenge students to their full intellectual potential, to celebrate the freedom of inquiry and to understand, as the Phi Beta Kappa motto articulates, that the ‘love of learning is the guide of life.’”
Chapters also will be installed this spring at the College of Saint Benedict-Saint John’s University in Minnesota, Elon University in North Carolina and James Madison University in Virginia.
For more information, contact Cara Engel, director of chapter relations, (202) 745-3249 or cengel@pbk.org.
(Photo: At podium, Kathryn Morris, Theta of Indiana president, associate professor of psychology at Butler University. Seated (l-r) Bobby Fong, president of Butler University, and John Hargrove, chair of Butler University Board of Trustees. Photo by R. Brent Smith.)