About Tau Beta Pi
Tau Beta Pi is the premier engineering honor society in the United States and one of the top three honor societies in the nation. It aspires to be the premier honor society in the nation and to be well known by the college-educated population therein. It will select only those members who demonstrate superior scholarship and who possess exemplary character as evidenced through their personal integrity, breadth of interest, adaptability, and unselfish activity. It will focus on serving its members and society at large with enthusiasm and excellence. The Association will promote excellence in the fields of engineering and engineering education, thus helping to improve the public's perception of the profession.
Founding of Tau Beta Pi
The Tau Beta Pi Association, national engineering honor society, was founded at Lehigh University in 1885 by Dr. Edward Higginson Williams, Jr., "to mark in a fitting manner those who have conferred honor upon their Alma Mater by distinguished scholarship and exemplary character as undergraduates in engineering, or by their attainments as alumni in the field of engineering, and to foster a spirit of liberal culture in engineering colleges."Preamble to the Constitution.
An honor society is an association of primarily collegiate members and chapters whose purposes are to encourage and recognize superior scholarship and/or leadership achievement either in broad fields of education or in departmental fields at either undergraduate or graduate levels.
The honor society has followed the expansion and specialization of higher education in America. When Phi Beta Kappa was organized in 1776 no thought was given to its proper "field," since all colleges then in existence were for the training of men for "the service of the church and the state." With the expansion of education into new fields, a choice had to be made, and the society elected to operate in the field of the liberal arts and sciences. Although this was not finally voted until 1898, the trend was evident years earlier, and 1885 saw the establishment of Tau Beta Pi.
Founder Edward H. Williams, Jr., was born at Proctorsville, Vermont, on September 30, 1849; he died at Woodstock, Vermont, on November 2, 1933. A member of Phi Beta Kappa, he was head of the mining department of Lehigh University when he determined to offer technical men as good a chance of recognition for superior scholarship in their field as that afforded by the other society in the liberal arts and sciences.
Working alone he conceived an organization, gave it a name, designed its governmental structure, drew up its constitution, prepared its badge and certificate, established its membership requirements, and planned all the necessary details for its operation including the granting of chapters and the holding of conventions.
Thus, with only a paper organization, he offered membership to qualified graduates of Lehigh and received their acceptances and enthusiastic endorsement. Late in the spring of 1885 he invited the valedictorian of the senior class, Irving Andrew Heikes, to membership and he accepted, becoming the first student member of Tau Beta Pi; but there was no time to initiate the rest of the eligible men from the class of 1885.
Mr. Heikes returned for graduate work, however, and in the fall of 1885, he, Dr. Williams, and two alumni who had earlier accepted membership, initiated the eligible men from the class of 1886 and organized the chapter.
The parent chapter, Alpha of Pennsylvania, existed alone until 1892 when Alpha of Michigan was founded at Michigan State University
California Psi Chapter and Mission Statement
The California Psi Chapter at UC San Diego was established in 1994. Currently at about 150 members, both the size of membership and activities over the past several years has increased dramatically. With regards to activities, the California Psi chapter interacts with other student organizations in campus-wide events, as well as conduct it's own endeavors, such as community service. Community service is an important part of an honor society, as it is the duty of those who have excelled in academics to act in an unselfish manner to promote the education and academic interest of others. For this and other reasons, the participation of members in tutoring and outreach programs is highly stressed. The California Psi chapter offers free tutoring services for all engineering students in lower and upper division engineering classes. Members are also involved with the Student Outreach program in which groups of 4-5 Tau Bates go to a local grade school once a week to teach basic science and engineering principles through fun and exciting experiments.
As a relatively new and developing chapter, the California Psi chapter seeks to advance all the disciplines of engineering, and in the process, increase the visibility and recognition of Tau Beta Pi on the UC San Diego campus. Through the tutoring and outreach programs, as well as Tau Beta Pi sponsored engineering workshops and activities, it is the hope of this chapter to encourage the "distinguished scholarship", "exemplary character", and "unselfish activity " that is the basis of the founding of Tau Beta Pi as an honor society.
Membership
Eligibility to obtain membership into Tau Beta Pi is based on two principles: distinguished scholarship and exemplary character. The California Psi chapter determines the extent of these characteristics through the use of academic performance and a personal interview. A student meets the distinguished scholarship criteria if that person is in the top 1/8 of the junior class, or the top 1/5 of the senior class. Rank is dependant upon GPA. Upon selection by the academic criteria, the candidate now has to pass the exemplary character criteria. This is performed at the California Psi chapter through a personal interview and information obtained from a personal statement and resume. If both criteria of distinguished scholarship and exemplary character are met, the chapter membership decides by majority vote those candidates who will be invited to join Tau Beta Pi.
Chapter History
Click here to view a quick snapshot of our chapter's history.