Kappa of Illinois Membership Criteria
for Members in Course
The following items governing membership in course, based on the
Phi Beta Kappa Society's Model Chapter Bylaws, were adopted by the
chapter members on December 7, 1995, and were last amended in 2013.
The foreign language and math requirements are effective Spring 2015
based on June 2011 revisions to the
Phi Beta Kappa Society's Membership Eligibility Stipulations
- Eligible students must be candidates for a bachelor's degree in
the College of Arts and Sciences or the Institute for Environmental
Studies. At least three-fourths of the 120 credits required for
graduation must be in the liberal arts or sciences, as defined by the
Phi Beta Kappa Society's Membership Eligibility Stipulations
and our chapter's
Classification of Course work as Liberal Arts & Sciences Work.
These Stipulations require that certain work of an applied or
vocational nature not be counted as liberal arts work, and this is
reflected in the chapter's Classification.
- Weight shall be given to the breadth and depth of study in liberal
arts and sciences, taking into account the number, variety, and level
of courses taken outside the requirements of the major, and the
proportion of the candidate's overall program those courses
constitute. Consideration shall also be given to the number of
elective courses taken above the introductory, or general education,
level.
- Effective Spring 2015: Candidates shall have
demonstrated, by successful work in high school or college, or in the
two together, a knowledge of a second or non-native language at least
minimally appropriate for a liberal education. In no case shall this
mean less than the completion of the intermediate college level in a
second, or non-native, language, or its equivalent. See details on the
Foreign Language Requirement
below.
- Effective Spring 2015: The candidate's undergraduate
record shall include at least one course in college-level mathematics,
logic, or statistics, with content appropriate to a liberal arts and
sciences curriculum. The course should introduce the student to
mathematical ideas, abstract thinking, proofs, and the axiomatic
method. Realizing this requirement at LUC will require completing one of the following
(or obtaining corresponding AP or transfer credit):
- MATH 108
- Any MATH course numbered 161 or higher except 215 and 301.
- Any STAT course classified as Liberal Arts & Sciences Work numbered 203 or higher. (Also BIOL 335 and BIOL 336 are crosslists with such STAT courses, and BIOL 470 is also an advanced statistics course. Note: Other basic applied statistics courses in various disciplines may count as liberal work but not satisfy the axiomatic math requirement.)
- COMP 163
- Nominations for membership in course shall be made by the
Committee on Members in Course. All eligible students meeting the
minimum grade point and credit hour requirements will be selected
initially for nomination. The list of potential nominees from the two
qualifying Colleges will be forwarded to their respective
undergraduate deans and the chairs of the department(s) in which each
potential nominee is majoring
as well as the Office of Student Conduct and Conflict Resolution
in order to ascertain that the potential
nominees' files do not contain evidence which suggests that they do
not meet the requirement of good character deemed necessary for a
member in course. Then the Committee on Members in Course will submit a list of all
nominees meeting the academic and character requirements to the
members of the chapter. Election shall be by secret ballot and shall
require an affirmative vote by three-fourths of the resident members
present.
- For elections as a junior, the candidate shall have completed at
least five semester of college work and be registered for a sixth
semester. The candidate shall have earned at least 75 semester hours
of course work with a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.90,
and at least 60 of these credits must be at Loyola University
Chicago. Additionally, the candidate must be registered for sufficient
course work to earn at least 90 hours by the end of the sixth
semester. Such candidates will then be reviewed for the foreign
language, math, and liberal arts requirements (at least 75% of
registered credits being in the liberal arts and a grade point average
of at least 3.90 in completed liberal arts courses).
- For election as a senior, the candidate shall have graduated at
the January commencement or be scheduled for graduation at the May
commencement during the year of election. The candidate must have
earned a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.80 and have
earned or be scheduled to earn at least 90 semester hours of course
work at Loyola University Chicago. Such candidates will then be
reviewed for the foreign language, math, and liberal arts requirements
(at least 90 of the registered credits being in the liberal arts and a
grade point average of at least 3.80 in completed liberal arts
courses).
Foreign Language Requirement
Candidates for election must demonstrate intermediate level
proficiency (as defined by the American Council on the Teaching of
Foreign Languages) in at least one language other than English.
- Students who study a foreign language at LUC will satisfy this
requirement if they complete a foreign language course at the fourth
semester level or higher.
- Any student who has AP credit for four semester of a foreign
language will statisfy this requirement.
- A student may satisfy this requirement by passing an appropriate
proficiency test at the intermediate level. Note that the CAS language
requirement only requires mastery at the elementary level; a student
who wish to satisfy the PBK requirement via a proficiency test should
make certain that the test that s/he takes measures proficiency at the
intermediate level, and that the results of that test are noted on
her/his transcript.
- A student who has transfer credit from another PBK institution may
use that credit to satisfy this requirement, provided that credit
meets the PBK foreign language requirement at the other institution.
Other students with transfer credit may satisfy this requirement by
taking a proficiency test or by completing at least one foreign
language course at LUC beyond the fourth semester level.
Classification of Course work as Liberal Arts & Sciences Work
Both our chapter bylaws and the Phi Beta Kappa Society's
Phi Beta Kappa Society's Stipulations Concerning Eligibility for Membership in Course
require that three-quarters of the credits required to earn a
bachelor's degree be liberal arts work and that work of an "applied or
professional" nature not be counted in computing grade point averages
for purposes of eligibility. The following rules will determine how
these standards will be applied in our chapter.
- Students enrolled in a program leading to the awarding of a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science degree through
the College of Arts and Sciences or the Institute for Environmental Studies will be considered for membership.
- Credit from the Quinlan School of Business (except Economics BA courses), the School of Continuing and Professional
Studies, the School of Education, the Parkinson School of Health Sciences and Public Health, the Marcella Niehoff
School of Nursing, and the School of Social Work will not be considered as liberal work and will not be counted in the grade
point calculations.
- Most other undergraduate credit, generally in the College of Arts and Sciences and the Institute for Environmental
Studies, will be considered as liberal arts work and counted in grade point calculations, but there are many exceptions, such as
courses related to teaching (e.g., ENGL 393 or LATN 373), Physical Education, Military Science, English as a Second
Language, most Computer Science and Engineering, and many Communication, and Fine and Performing Arts
courses.
- A more specific categorization of courses by subject may be viewed below (red for exclusion and green for inclusion); special topics courses marked with an asterisk (*) may be includable based on analysis of the topic. (Transfer credit from other institutions will be evaluated in the same manner as comparable course work at Loyola.) The Committee on Members in Course reserves the right to make adjustments at any time regarding which courses will be counted as liberal arts work.
Adopted December 7, 1994Modified March 29, 2000 and March 3, 2006, and March 23, 2020.
|
Last updated
on 17-Jun-21 at 21:16 CDT
by Ronald Greenberg (rig at cs.luc.edu)
|