UMKC's chapter was constituted and installed with 16 faculty members on March 28, 1969. The national honor society replaced Torch and Scroll, the scholastic honorary which had served the University of Kansas City and then the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Each year, the highest-ranking students in the University are elected into membership. Golden Key is a national academic honors organization dedicated to excellence. The society is interdisciplinary and unites the talents of the brightest undergraduate students in America.
Students qualify on the basis of objective academic criteria.
No more than the top 15 percent of the juniors and seniors enrolled may be eligible. Members are actively involved with various community service projects. Order of Omega is the leadership honor society for social Greek organizations. The purpose of Order of Omega is to recognize those Greeks who attain a high academic and leadership standard, to bring together the most representative fraternity and sorority members to address local or intercollegiate affairs and to bring together members of the faculty, alumni and Greek system on a basis of mutual interest, understanding and helpfulness. The society is a nonprofit organization devoted to the advancement of scholarship.