Following a merger with the University of Minnesota's Agricultural Honor Society of America, a new constitution was drafted and ratified in 1917. The Society is strictly honorary in character. Elections to membership are conducted by the faculty. Senior students elected to membership must rank scholastically in the upper 15 per cent of the class and they must show promise of future leadership in some phase of agriculture in its broadest meaning. Graduate students of outstanding ability in the various fields of agriculture or closely related sciences, and alumni and faculty who have, by virtue of outstanding achievement in agricultural pursuits, are also eligible for election.
Faculty members are eligible after at least three years of service.
Alumni are eligible for election not sooner than five years after graduation. High standards of scholarship and outstanding achievement in career pursuits are encouraged. It is hoped that all those who engage in the broad field of agricultural science will work toward the goal of improving all the aspects of agriculture. Since the beginning of recorded history, humankind's central occupation has been directed toward providing the basic needs of food, clothing, and shelter. Our problems are now more complex and our needs much broader, so that all people are concerned with problems in agriculture.