Phi Beta Kappa at the University of Vermont

Phi Beta Kappa at UVM

Phi Beta Kappa has been a presence in the University of Vermont, quite possibly unbroken, since the arrival in Burlington on 16 November 1799 of President Daniel Clarke Sanders (elected to Phi Beta Kappa at Harvard in 1788). The chapter in Burlington, Alpha of Vermont, was chartered on February 16, 1848, and formed in the study of President Wheeler's house on March 7, 1848. In order of age, it is the eleventh chapter on the rolls of Phi Beta Kappa. A daughter chapter, Beta of Vermont, was formed at Middlebury in 1868. These are the only two chapters that have existed in Vermont.

The Alpha of Vermont takes special pride in having been the very first chapter anywhere to admit women. Because they were qualified, Lida Mason and Ellen Hamilton were invited to membership in 1875. Initiated here in 1877 was George Washington Henderson, top of his class, who had been born a slave in Virginia and a mere twelve years earlier had been entirely illiterate. Initiated from the class of 1879 was John Dewey, the distinctive American philosopher. All these forebears signed the very membership book still in use at the formal initiation meetings of our chapter. An honorary member of this chapter, who served as its president, was George Perkins Marsh, native of Woodstock, Vermont, and pioneer of the study of environmental science.

The Alpha of Vermont, Phi Beta Kappa, is "sheltered by"-but is not a part of-the University of Vermont. The chapter receives no financial support from the University of Vermont or from student fees. On June 11, 1997, Alpha of Vermont, Phi Beta Kappa, was formally provided continuing recognition on the basis of educational merit by Gerald P. Francis, Interim Provost, in accordance with UVM's Group Recognition Policy promulgated by President Thomas Salmon on December 16, 1996.

Chapter officers
Categories of membership

Chapter constitution (revised May 2005)
Chapter bylaws (revised May 2005)

From "The Key Reporter," (newsletter of Phi Beta Kappa Society), Vol. 62, No. 4, Summer 1997:

I was elected to Phi Beta Kappa at the University of Vermont in 1954 and entered medical school the same year. Uncertainty about my choice of career prompted me to take a year off, and I went to the University of Oregon and began basic research. When it became obvious that I needed to study calculus to do the research, I enrolled in the University of Portland. The dean informed me that I could not take the course requested until my transcripts arrived. I presented my Phi Beta Kappa key to him. He smiled and said that he would permit me to take the course temporarily on the basis of my key, informing me with some chagrin that he did not have one.
- Ronald O. Weinraub, Little Falls, N.Y.