PBK Changes Election Process

The Harvard-Radcliffe chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa Society has changed its selection process for the final round of senior elections into the organization, PBK officers announced earlier this week.

In past years, students who were in the top of their class in each of the three areas—humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences—would be invited to apply for each round of elections. But starting this year, the students under consideration for the final round during senior spring will not be subjected to an application process. In fact, they will not be notified of their candidacy.

Instead of having each senior spring candidate upload a transcript and provide two recommendations as candidates did in the first two rounds, this new election process will seek consultation from the director of undergraduate studies for each relevant department based on academic records obtained from the registrar.

According to Logan S. McCarty, the organization’s vice president, this new procedure arose from student and faculty concerns about the nature of the final senior election, where half the number of invited applicants find out a week before Commencement that they have not been elected into the society.

“It’s basically a small honor,” said Ann M. Blair, president of Harvard’s chapter. “The act of not getting it shouldn’t be marring the experience of graduating.”

Blair estimates that roughly 90 students will be selected of the approximately 180 candidates this spring, which, along with the 24 selected in spring of junior year and 48 selected in fall of senior year, will make up 10 percent of the graduating class.

Blair added that practical considerations also went into making this change.

The timing of these elections, McCarty said, has always come at a busy time for students and faculty, presenting a challenge to obtaining the letters of recommendation.

Though this new procedure would put less pressure on both students and faculty, it will not change the thinking behind this chapter’s selection process, McCarty added.

“Many schools’ Phi Beta Kappa is determined solely by grade point average, and we have long felt that that is a narrow viewpoint,” McCarty said. “We want to look at academic excellence more broadly. The level of difficulty and the breath of academic experience that they show is more than a simple numerical calculation. We still preserve all of that in this process.”

Some seniors who are already members of the society said they support the idea of only announcing the new additions before Commencement.

“I think it’s a positive thing not to let down half the people who are nominated,” said Anthony C. Speare ’10, a sociology concentrator and a marshall for the society.

As it currently stands, once undergraduates are elected, they may choose to partake in deliberations for future rounds of selection.

Under the new guidelines, however, students will not be able to participate in deliberations for senior spring elections.

Daniel M. Bear ’10, a molecular and cellular biology concentrator in Adams House, said he feels that there is not much difference in being able to make the decisions.

“It’s nice to be a part of the deliberations,” Bear said. “[But] both of those groups are extremely accomplished groups of students, and [it’s] an extremely high honor to be in each of those groups. It’s a tremendous honor to be elected no matter what.”

—Staff writer Xi Yu can be reached at xyu@college.harvard.edu.