More than 200 years ago, students at Carolina tried to start a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa — now the nation's most prestigious honor society — but their application was rejected by an Ivy League college. More than a century later, they tried again and succeeded, paving the way for high-achieving students to earn membership in one of academia's most exclusive clubs.
TRANSCRIPT
Welcome to Remembering the Days, where we explore the stories and talk with the people who are part of the rich history of the University of South Carolina. I’m Evan Faulkenbury.
One hundred years ago, the nation’s most prestigious honors society, Phi Beta Kappa, was chartered at the University of South Carolina. As I was researching its history, I had a chance to attend the society’s induction ceremony this past May and speak with students who had received this once-in-a-lifetime invitation. I asked them what it was like to learn that they had been admitted to Phi Beta Kappa.
Catherine Armstrong: “I got a couple of the emails and funny enough, I didn't really think much about them, but it was my dad actually who got the letter, the actual physical letter in the mail at my childhood home. And he was like, ‘Oh, Catherine, listen to me. I did some research on this and this is actually really, really prestigious. You need to do this.’ For me personally, I think it's just a reflection of how hard I've worked over the past four years.”
Tremayne Ansani: “It means so much. It feels like a lot of my hard work and everything is being acknowledged by Phi Beta Kappa. So I'm really honored and privileged to be able to join this great organization.”
Anika Tapita: “I think my parents just raised me to always do well in school, like school comes first. And I think just doing well and kind of getting that knowledge is what motivated me to do well.”
That was Catherine Armstrong, Tremayne Ansani and Anika Tapita — three of the most recent inductees into USC’s Alpha Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. It’s a wonderful personal accomplishment for them, and now, they’re part of USC’s history.
As Phi Beta Kappa celebrates its 100th anniversary at USC, we thought it would be fun to look backwards, dig into this story, and try to understand the significance of this honor society at Carolina.
The story actually begins much, much earlier than 1926. Over a century earlier. Back in 1818, five students at South Carolina College — which was USC’s antebellum forerunner — applied to the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Harvard to start a branch on campus. The college’s president, Jonathan Maxcy, wrote a letter supporting the students’ application. Here's what Maxcy wrote:
“Sir,
As a number of the students belonging to the Senior and Junior
classes in this College have expressed a desire of obtaining a
branch of the Phi Beta Kappa Society extended to this College, I
take the liberty in their behalf to state to you, that this College is
in a flourishing state, under the patronage of our State Legislature,
and that a regular course of instruction similar to that pursued
in the northern colleges is supported by a president, four
professors and two tutors; and a strict course of discipline maintained
through the classes — and that our present state and prospects
are such, as in the opinion of gentlemen, members of your
society, would authorise the present application. Of this however
your Society are the judges. I can with pleasure assure you that
the young gentlemen who make the present application, are in
honourable standing in their respective classes; and that full confidence
may be reposed in their fidelity.
I am with all due respect
Your very humble servant
Jonathan Maxcy”
Not only did Jonathan Maxcy intercede on the students’ behalf, but so did John C. Calhoun, who at the time was Secretary of War, and John Quincy Adams, who was Secretary of State and would go on to become president of the United States. Talk about connections.
You would think the application would be a shoo-in, but Dartmouth College’s chapter blocked admittance for South Carolina College for unclear reasons. It might have been appealed, but amazingly, the application materials were lost. It’s not clear exactly what happened, but it involved some Phi Beta Kappa records at Harvard getting mixed into some private papers of individuals as they moved around and changed offices. Meanwhile in Columbia, those applying students graduated and moved on. Jonathan Maxcy passed away in 1820. And so, the initial drive to get South Carolina College a Phi Beta Kappa chapter fizzled out.
But a century later, the secretary for Phi Beta Kappa, Dr. Oscar Voorhees, uncovered South Carolina’s application letters and published this discovery in the society’s journal in 1923. With this mystery explained, it reignited interest on campus at USC to finally charter a branch of Phi Beta Kappa. Leaders at USC applied again, and this time, the application wasn’t lost. USC was admitted, and on April 8, 1926, under the Alpha Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa began at USC.
So, what exactly is Phi Beta Kappa? Founded in 1776 at the College of William and Mary, it is as old as the nation itself. It was a secret society to promote fraternal friendship and knowledge. More chapters appeared on college campuses, and Phi Beta Kappa evolved into an academic honor society. It dropped its secretive nature in 1830 but kept many of its traditions, many of which are still around today, such as its secret handshake.
Today, it is the most prestigious honor society in the United States. Only around 10 percent of colleges in America have a chapter, and only around 1 percent of college seniors are admitted. To be invited, your major must be in the liberal arts or sciences. The bar is high for admittance. At USC, along with other requirements, students must have a 3.9 GPA or above.
Dr. Gwen Geidel, geologist and distinguished research professor emerita at USC, remembered when she was a senior at Carolina in 1974 and was invited to join Phi Beta Kappa.
Gwen Geidel: “It was exciting, because there were so few honor societies on campus that it was about the only one. I don't remember now how I knew it was important, but it seemed like it was something that was important. In those days, it was a very formal ceremony. Women had to wear long gowns and men had to wear tuxes. So as a side note, my date, who was supposed to wear a tux, showed up in a very nice suit, but not a tux. And I was a little intimidated whether they'd let him in, but they did. A lovely, lovely ceremony. I would say there were maybe 20 to 25 of us is what I remember. At the time it was, well, you've studied hard, done well, and I was on a three-year track to graduate, so taking a lot of hours. And so at that point I was like, oh, somebody appreciated that. So I think that was really where it was. It was, your efforts have paid off.”
And it continues to pay off as a member of Phi Beta Kappa. For one, it’s a lifetime membership with only the initial fee to pay. It’s a feather-in-your-cap to put on your resume and CV. And it puts you in welcome company — 17 former presidents, 42 Supreme Court Justices, Mark Twain, Condoleezza Rice, Alexander Graham Bell, and even South Carolina’s own Rudy Mancke — all members of Phi Beta Kappa.
In 2001, as USC celebrated its bicentennial, President John Palms, who, yes, was a Phi Beta Kappa member himself, and the university community acknowledged the 75th anniversary of Phi Beta Kappa at Carolina. After a short ceremony, they unveiled a new monument on campus — the bronze Phi Beta Kappa key right beside the Horseshoe in the Honors courtyard in between McKissick and Currell College. If you haven’t noticed it before, you’re not alone. Next time you’re on the Horseshoe, go check it out.
Phi Beta Kappa is old, we’ve established that, but why does it still matter at USC? Dr. Geidel has the answer.
Gwen Geidel: “Phi Beta Kappa recognizes those students that really have excelled in what they have done, not just in terms of their grades, but they really are, many cases, looking at the greater humanitarian issues, whether they're in sciences, math, the liberal arts or the humanities. Those are the students that really have to take a lot of those courses that really put them on a track to understand what's going on in the world. And I think as they are understanding how all of the world works from a liberal arts perspective and from a science perspective, but they really are trying to synthesize where we are and trying to solve some of those larger issues from more of a theoretical and applied basis than simply from a professional type of a basis. So I think it's really important that we do have those students, that we recognize those students, and kind of by recognizing them, put them on a trajectory to continue that kind of effort throughout their careers.”
So, it’s not just that Phi Beta Kappa recognizes students because of their good grades, but it also encourages them that through their hard work, they’re on course to change the world.
Thanks for listening and a special thank-you to John Quirk for reading the letter by Jonathan Maxcy. I also want to thank Cathy Snediker and Craig Keeney for their help researching this episode.
On the next Remembering the Days, we’re traveling across campus and, figuratively speaking, all the way to Amsterdam. It’s the story of how the Anne Frank House in the Netherlands partnered with USC to open the only Anne Frank Center in North America — right here at the University of South Carolina.
That’s next on Remembering the Days.