By JULIE M. BRADFORD
In celebration of 100 years of excellence, BYU Phi Kappa Phi members should develop a pattern of excellence in life, said the national president of Phi Kappa Phi, E. Ann Nalley, at an initiation ceremony Wednesday.
'That pattern begins when we first learn in the home and culminates tonight when we initiate these outstanding students into the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi,' Nalley said.
'We are here to savor the common bonding that brings us together and to pay tangible tribute to students and faculty whose accomplishments have brought credit to themselves and to this university,' Nalley said.
Those persons elected to membership are students with good character and outstanding scholarship, she said.
Students and faculty members were initiated into the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi Wednesday night at a banquet in the Wilkinson Center Ballroom. This year 283 seniors, 71 juniors, 24 graduate students and eight faculty members were initiated into Phi Kappa Phi.
'We recognize your accomplishments and we congratulate you for these, but we also challenge and encourage you to maintain the principles reflected in our motto, `Let the Love of Learning Rule Humanity,'' Nalley said.
The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi is dedicated to this pursuit of excellence in all fields of higher education and to the recognition of outstanding accomplishments by students, faculty and others through election to membership and through other awards for distinguished achievement, she said.
'I believe excellence is a goal in life that one continues to work toward and is always one step beyond where we are,' she said.
Nalley suggested that excellence included going beyond a limit set by authority or established by custom or by prior achievement. Excellence implies preeminence in achievement or quality, exceeding what has been done before, and surpassing in a race or competition.
'Phi Kappa Phi serves as a unifying force on a campus, recognizing that excellence is important in all academic endeavors and bringing faculty and students together in a common cause,' Nalley said.
This organization is the oldest honor society dedicated to honoring academic excellence in all academic disciplines. It establishes chapters at universities which seek to provide students opportunities for intellectual challenge and growth beyond the scope of the average university classroom, she said.
'Phi Kappa Phi contributes substantially to academic endeavors on many university campuses and helps to shape the future. This occasion personifies a particular aspect of BYU's character that we must acknowledge, advance, cherish and protect: her commitment to excellence. BYU represents excellence in the way their Phi Kappa Phi chapter operates,' Nalley said.
Nalley commended BYU students for their participation in this organization.
'You are now an integral partner in that pattern of excellence which this chapter establishes. You are an indispensable component in a network of outstanding individuals who believe in excellence and refuse to allow that concept to be sabotaged by the forces of relativism and mediocrity,' Nalley said.
Nalley urged students to accept the challenge of making the pattern of excellence a continual part of their lives and always reaching the higher rung on the ladder.
'Make your contribution to society one of excellence and help to recognize and encourage academic excellence,' Nalley said.
'As a part of the society's commitment to academic excellence, the Phi Kappa Phi Fellowship program was begun to recognize superior achievement by assisting recipients in the first year of their graduate study,' Nalley said.
The program supports 50 Fellowships of $7,000 each as well as 30 Honorable Mention awards of $1000 each. In addition, the single nominee which each chapter selects as its outstanding senior is honored with an 'active for life member' of the society.
'The fellowship program is a vital part of the pattern of excellence which can be identified in the programs, services, operations and financial responsibilities of the society,' Nalley said.
BYU has consistently had winners of these fellowships each year for the past 16 years.
'I congratulate you on your induction into Phi Kappa Phi and your university for providing you with the opportunity and stimulating academic environment which has made it possible,' Nalley said.
Prior to her becoming national president in 1995, Nalley served on the national Phi Kappa Phi board of directors for 15 years.