60 CSB and SJU students to be inducted into Phi Beta Kappa

Sixty students from the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University have been accepted into the Theta of Minnesota Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa at CSB/SJU.

The students will be formally initiated into the chapter during a ceremony at 5 p.m. Tuesday, May 1, in Alumnae Hall, Haehn Campus Center, CSB. Vincent Smiles, professor of theology at CSB and SJU, will speak at the ceremony. CSB President MaryAnn Baenninger and SJU President the Rev. Robert Koopmann, OSB, will also speak at the ceremony.

A dinner follows at 6:30 p.m. at the Gorecki Dining and Conference Center, CSB.

A total of 49 seniors and 11 juniors were selected by faculty members at CSB and SJU who are members of Phi Beta Kappa, the nation's oldest academic honor society, which was founded in 1776. There are 41 students from CSB and 19 from SJU in this year's group.

The basic criteria for selection are a grade-point average (3.75 for juniors, 3.65 for seniors) and a liberal arts major. The selection committee also looked at the breadth and depth of the student's program and other achievements, such as a thesis or other research.

This is the third group of students who have been inducted into the chapter. A total of 211 CSB/SJU students have been inducted into Phi Beta Kappa.

Delegates from more than 200 chapters and associations of Phi Beta Kappa voted to establish the chapter at CSB/SJU on Oct. 2, 2009, during their Triennial Council in Austin, Texas.

The CSB/SJU chapter was the eighth Phi Beta Kappa chapter established in Minnesota and was named 'Theta' after the eighth letter of the Greek alphabet.