After finding out I made it into the Williams College Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi honor societies, I went online looking for more information about the induction ceremonies. Unlike the commencement exercises, there does not seem to be much out there about these two ceremonies, so I figured I might explain what goes on during these events.

Just a quick background: Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi are two honor societies that some colleges and universities offer to their students. Phi Beta Kappa tends to admit students based on GPA and breadth of coursework, while Sigma Xi admits those who have done and plan to continue doing science and math research. (At Williams College, Phi Beta Kappa is solely based off of GPA; roughly the top 12.5% of the class gets in.) In the Williams College class of 2014, I believe there were 68 Phi Beta Kappa inductees and 56 Sigma Xi inductees. Of course, there was significant overlap among the two groups.

Phi Beta Kappa

We had several speakers in this ceremony. Some provided administrative information, such as “welcome to the society” and “please do X to complete your application” type of stuff.

To me, the most notable speaker was the Williams professor who introduced us to the history of the Williams College Phi Beta Kappa charter. It started in 1776 at the College of William and Mary (the college that, according to the speaker, our grandmothers still think we go to) and then spread to Massachusetts when Harvard acquired a charter in 1779. Williams tried numerous times to acquire one from Harvard, but did not succeed until 1864. The charter we obtained, written in Latin, was shown on display throughout the ceremony. Sadly, it appears to be the only one of its kind in which the granting institution’s name (“Harvard”) was written in much larger text than the name of the school being awarded (“Williams”)!

After the history talk, another guest speaker highlighted the diversity of the majors studied and languages spoken among the Phi Beta Kappa members. He listed almost every major and language, except for computer science and American Sign Language. I am not sure how those two didn’t make it on his lists. I mean … maybe if one of my two “diversity contributions” was listed, I wouldn’t have made a big deal out of it, but both?

Near the end of the ceremony, each of us went on stage to receive Phi Beta Kappa materials.

Sigma Xi

This induction ceremony was much shorter than the one for Phi Beta Kappa. The Sigma Xi speaker spoke briefly about how he wished us all an excellent career in science, and encouraged us to try and get promoted to full membership. All the Sigma Xi inductees stood up and got to the stage to get our materials, and then we stood there while all the parents and other family members took pictures. I noticed at least one of the old class pictures is online — if the 2014 one goes up, you should try and find me.