Phi Beta Kappa Society at Texas State
Founded in 1776, Phi Beta Kappa is the nation's most prestigious honor society. Celebrating excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, the society voted to establish a chapter at Texas State University on August 2nd at the 47th Triennial Council in Baltimore, Maryland. The chapter will be known as Nu of Texas.
Juniors and seniors who meet the criteria for membership will be invited to join in Spring 2025 when we will install the chapter and welcome the first class of initiates.
Texas State will be the fifth public university in the state and only the third university in the nation to be awarded a chapter after also achieving the status of a Hispanic Service Institution. There are less than 300 chapters in the nation, so this is a milestone for the university.
The application cycle to establish a chapter takes place only every three years and requires an extensive site visit as well as multiple votes. Dr. Galloway notes that “After many years of working to establish the chapter, it was an incredible feeling to sit in the audience and wait for the votes to be counted.”
We enjoyed celebrating the win with our president. Dr. Kelly Damphousse is one of the many faculty and staff at Texas State who is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. A complete list of the nearly one hundred PBK faculty and staff at Texas State is coming soon.
The committee submitting the approved application was co-chaired by Dr. Cathy Jaffe, University Distinguished Professor of Spanish and Dr. Heather Galloway, Dean of the Honors College and included Dr. Ron Haas, Professor of Instruction, Honors College and Dr. William Kelemen, Professor, Department of Psychology. Please email phibetakappa@txstate.edu with any questions.