Delegates meeting in Denver in October for the Triennial Council of Phi Beta Kappa, America’s oldest academic honor society, elected Christine Cano, associate professor of French, to a six-year term on the Phi Beta Kappa Senate, the society’s governing body.
Also at the Triennial Council, the Case Western Reserve chapter, Alpha of Ohio, was named an Outstanding Private University Chapter for 2012-2015—one of only two of the 283 Phi Beta Kappa chapters to receive this distinction—and the Cleveland Association of Phi Beta Kappa was honored as an Outstanding Midsized Association.
CWRU chapter delegate and co-secretary Margaret B. Robinson, dean emerita of undergraduate studies, accepted the award on behalf of the chapter, and alumna Meredith Shoop (LAW ’09), Cleveland Association delegate, accepted the award on behalf of the association.
The awards are given every three years to the chapters and associations that excel in recognizing academic excellence and achievement, furthering learning for all life, and advocating for the arts and sciences.
Founded Dec. 5, 1776, The Phi Beta Kappa Society is the nation’s most widely known academic honor society. It has chapters at 283 colleges and universities in the United States, 50 alumni associations and more than half a million members around the world. Its mission is to champion education in the liberal arts and sciences, to recognize academic excellence, and to foster freedom of thought and expression.
The Case Western Reserve University chapter’s resident membership comprises faculty, staff and students from across the university’s schools who were elected to Phi Beta Kappa at their undergraduate institutions or elected as honorary members by the chapter.
Among the 120 resident members are 10 seniors who were elected as juniors in spring 2015, as well as three honorary members:
- Jenifer Neils (art history),
- Alan Rocke (history) and
- Susan McClary (music).
Current chapter officers are:
- President: David J. Rothenberg (music),
- Vice President: Laura Tartakoff (political science),
- Co-Secretaries: Angela Ciccia (psychological sciences) and Robinson (Undergraduate Studies), and
- Treasurer: John J. Phillips (alumnus).
The chapter sponsors research grants for College of Arts and Sciences undergraduates and graduate students, and, in collaboration with the Department of Religious Studies, will host Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar Vincent L. Wimbush on campus Jan. 28-29.
For more information, visit casgroups.case.edu/phibetakappa/.