page_title: Phi Kappa Phi
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Phi Kappa Phi / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Phi Kappa Phi Medallion used for Graduation Ceremonies/Recognition
context_page_description: The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi is an honor society established in 1897 to recognize and encourage superior scholarship without restriction as to area of study and to promote the "unity and democracy of education". It is the fourth academic society in the United States to be organized around recognizing academic excellence, and is the oldest all-discipline honor society. The society's motto is Φιλοσοφία Kρατείτω Φωτῶν, which is translated as "Let the love of learning rule humanity", and its mission is "to recognize and promote academic excellence in all fields of higher education and to engage the community of scholars in service to others."
context_section_description: In the late 1800s, there were only two academic societies founded and organized as honor societies, and they were discipline specific – Tau Beta Pi and Sigma Xi, which were founded in 1885 and 1886, respectively.  There was also Phi Beta Kappa, a social and literary society that did not originate as an honor society when it was founded in 1776 but would soon become one for the liberal arts and sciences.  Although Phi Beta Kappa was not exclusive to one discipline, it did not extend its membership beyond the liberal arts and sciences, hence the establishment of Tau Beta Pi, an honor society for engineering.  Phi Beta Kappa became sufficient as an all-campus honor society for liberal arts colleges, but there was no honor society that could serve as such for the universities encompassing both liberal education and also technological and professional education, a mission to which the newly burgeoning land-grant universities of the time were dedicated.  That was to change in 1897 when the first organizational meeting of Lambda Sigma Eta (later named Phi Kappa Phi), the nation's first all-discipline honor society, was held in Coburn Hall at the University of Maine under the leadership of undergraduate student Marcus L. Urann.  In opposition to what he saw as the separateness and exclusivity promoted by the social fraternities and discipline bound honor societies, Urann wanted to create a society that was defined by inclusiveness and that unified a campus, constituted by "high rank men drawn from all classes and all groups and all societies".   Those selected for invitation into the society would be the top ten students of the senior class whose rank did not fall below the 90th percentile for the four years of work at the university.  In all, the society was founded by 10 senior students, two faculty members, and the university president, Abram Winegaard Harris. Urann graduated in 1897, and leadership of Phi Kappa Phi was assumed by President Harris. A year or so later, the name was changed to the Morrill Society, in honor of the sponsor of the Congressional Act which provided for land-grant universities.  In 1899, the first woman was initiated into the society, Pearl Clayton Swain.
  In 1900, the society became national in scope by action of the presidents of the University of Maine (the founding chapter), University of Tennessee, and Pennsylvania State University. There was considerable debate among the three existing chapters regarding the purpose and naming of the society. Pennsylvania State University's President George W. Atherton cautioned that using Greek letters to label the society would be "too much like aping other organizations", and President Charles W. Dabney of the University of Tennessee did not want to accept institutions that already had a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. Nonetheless, on June 12, 1900, the society changed its name to Phi Kappa Phi, drawing from the initial letters of the Greek words forming its motto (see article lede).  The year 1900 also saw the first national convention of Phi Kappa Phi, which was held in New Haven, Connecticut and attended by delegates representing the three original chapters.  In 1915, Phi Kappa Phi continued to struggle to earn a reputation.  The then Secretary of the organization, L.H. Pammel, pointed out that institutions that were seeking to establish a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa were often hesitant about establishing a chapter of Phi Kappa Phi.  To this, the society continued to make its case:
  Phi Beta Kappa, it was repeated time after time, represented the literary side of education such as history, literature, and economics."The Phi Kappa Phi on the other hand stands not only for the democracy of education, making no distinction between different lines of investigation, such as literature, history, science, home economics, agriculture, veterinary medicine, law, but for sound scholarship based on four years of collegiate work."
  It would later be asserted that the society's aim is not to replace older societies, but to "help raise the broader educational program initiated by
caption: Phi Kappa Phi Medallion used for graduation/recognition.
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