Dear Friends: We have received a preliminary petition for a new chapter of Tau Beta Pi from Tau Beta Gamma, local engineering honor society at Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas. Our Executive Council has authorized appointment of an inspection committee to visit the petitioners and their institution. It will be the function of the committee to advise the Executive Council and the 1973 Convention as to the desirability of chartering a chapter at Kansas State University.

Each of your chapters is requested to send representatives on the inspection visit to Kansas State University. We want each of your chapters to be represented, please, by its president or his delegated alternate, by at least one chapter advisor, and by any other student members and advisors who care to come. Visits to petitioning groups are most important to the Association, and the Executive Council and I will appreciate your chapters sending inspectors on this visit.

The date of the inspection is Monday, February 26, 1973. In addition to your chapter representatives, the inspection committee will include President George P. Palo, Director of Chapter Development G. Ronald Ames, and myself of the national organization.

We shall all meet by 10:00 a.m. on February 26 in the office of Engineering Dean R. G. Nevins in Seaton Hall on the Kansas State University campus. Seaton Hall is identified on the campus map on the inside back cover of the K.S.U. Bulletin as building No. 18. Our instructions are to park our cars in the lot in front of the Union, building No. 11, and walk through the Union and across the drive to Seaton Hall. We are also advised, in driving to Manhattan on I-70, to get off the Interstate on state route K-177 North to the town of Manhattan. The campus is a short distance west of K-177, practically in the center of town.

Inspection committee members will be reimbursed by my office for their expenses in connection with this assignment under our regular travel-expense policy, which is stated in the Bylaws for Convention delegate travel. Automobile allowance is eight cents per mile for the car and driver, plus one cent per mile for each Tau Beta Pi member rider, plus incurred tolls and parking expenses. I would expect that your chapter representatives will be able to drive to and from Manhattan in one day, but if this is impracticable overnight and other enroute expenses are allowable, of course.

Our inspection work should be completed by about 5:00 p.m. on February 26. Plans for your travel should be built around the 10:00 a.m. arrival and 5:00 p.m. departure times at Kansas State University.

All interested persons at Kansas State University will be invited to join us in the day's activities. Dean Nevins or his official representative and Mr. John H. Meiners, president of the local society, plus Dr. Frank A. Tillman, chief faculty advisor of Tau Beta Gamma, will first give us brief descriptive statements about their institution, its engineering programs, and the local society, at our morning meeting. Mr. Palo and I will also say a few words about Tau Beta Pi and the petitioning process. We shall then take short general campus tours, guided by Tau Beta Gamma members. At noon we shall have lunch with the Kansas State University people and have an opportunity, we hope, to meet administrative officials of the University who will be invited to join us.

Following lunch, we shall tour the engineering facilities in detail, and then we shall meet again at about 3:00 p.m. with the Kansas State University people for discussion, questions, and comments. It must be emphasized that an important purpose of an inspection visit to a petitioning group and its school is to make ourselves available for any questions they may have about Tau Beta Pi.

Finally, our inspection committee will hold a brief private meeting to discuss our recommendations to the Executive Council and the Convention.

Copies of Tau Beta Gamma's preliminary petition and the Kansas State University Bulletin are enclosed to the presidents of Kansas Alpha and Beta. The extra copies of these materials should be given to those chapter representatives who will be making the visit with us.

So that proper plans can be made for our group, please tell me by February 19 how many persons from your chapter will join the inspection committee. Your service on the visit will be of great value to Tau Beta PI and we shall thank you for taking the time to be with us.

Tau Beta Gamma's preliminary petition and the University catalog should serve to answer most of our factual questions about the local society and Its institution. Further information can be made available to us during the inspection visit. Let me refer you, please, to our requirements and recommendations for the establishment of new collegiate chapters, in Constitution Article VI, Section 2, and in Bylaw IV. You will note that several of the petitioning steps will be accomplished and checked during our inspection visit.

We shall want to ask the Tau Beta Gamma people about the operational policies and procedures of their society, particularly in the selection of new members and in their program of useful work for the benefit of their institution and fellow students. We might be able to help them from our own chapter experience with advice and suggestions about honor society principles and policies.

It must be emphasized that an inspection of this sort is a "two-way street." Not only will we be looking at Kansas State University, but they will be looking at us. We must not miss the opportunity to tell them everything they want to know about Tau Beta Pi.

Each member of the inspection committee will be asked to send me his written vote on the petition after we have left campus. The recommendations of the committee will carry great weight with our Executive Council and with the 1973 Convention because those of us on the visit will have first-hand knowledge of the school and the local society.

If our committee recommends that a chapter be established at Kansas State University, Tau Beta Gamma should seek brief letters of support from each of your chapters, for inclusion in its final petition. We should also be prepared on February 26 to make any other comments or suggestions with regard to their final petition. If our committee should recommend against establishing a chapter at Kansas State University at this time, we would expect the local society to withdraw its preliminary petition, although it would be free to present it to the 1973 Convention for action anyway.

I look forward to seeing several officers, advisors, and members of your chapters in Manhattan on February 26. Sincerely yours, Robert H. Nagel

1. I was very favorably impressed with both the University and its representatives. All of the engineering departments seemed well equipped and well directed. K-State has long been a leading contributor in the areas of agricultural and biological engineering and I know that there are many interdisciplinary activities which allow the various other engineering specialties to strengthen this particular area of contribution as well as their own individual ones.

2. I believe that Tau Beta Gamma's success thus far is indicative of the reception that a chapter of Tau Beta Pi would find. The officers and members of Tau Beta Gamma have demonstrated their understanding of the rules and purposes of Tau Beta Pi and their desire to foster its objectives. I believe they should have a chapter of Tau Beta Pi and am confident that this addition would credit them and Tau Beta Pi.

3. The enthusiasm and interest I sensed in the students, the faculty, and the administrators of Kansas State University provides me with a strong vote in favor of approval of Tau Beta Gamma's preliminary petition. Having been an officer at Kansas Alpha for about a year now, I have developed a great appreciation of the importance of these attributes as prerequisites for successful chapter operation.

1. My past impression of the University was mixed because it was, in part, based upon other persons opinions. After inspecting the K-State Engineering School personally, I am convinced that the University is dedicated to producing individuals with a high motivation and a sense of professionalism in the field of engineering. K-State is a fine University and deserves the high accreditation it has received in the past.

2. The chapter seems to be very active and concerned with civil concerns as well as excellence in academics. The members appear to be outstanding individuals and deserve the right to be full members of Tau Beta Pi. I recommend the addition of K-State as a new chapter of Tau Beta Pi with every confidence of the chapter's capability in carrying out the duties essential to our society 

3. None.

1. Kansas State meets our requirements for a Chapter, and should be a credit to Tau Beta Pi.

2. I feel that the students and faculty at K-State have done a fine job of establishing a colony chapter.

3. If merger of Sigma Tau and Tau Beta Pi becomes a reality, one only trip to install Tau Beta Pi at K-State should suffice. I suggest that we plan for this probability.

1. I was impressed with Kansas State University. The engineering facilities at Kansas State are undoubtedly great. 

2. The person to person contact I had with Tau Beta Gamma's members and supporting faculty, all contributed to my support of their petition for a Tau Beta Pi chapter.

3. It was my feelings that the people and facilities of this institution are such as to maintain the high standard of Tau Beta Pi. I feel their membership will reflect favorably on the Tau Beta Association and therefore recommend to the Executive Council and the 1973 Convention that a chapter be granted to Kansas State University.

1. The University is in an excellent place of study and certainly deserves recognition of Tau Beta Pi.

2. I felt that the students had a spirit of participation which could result in an excellent Tau Beta Pi chapter.

3. None.

1. Kansas State University has a fine school of engineering. Their school of engineering is qualified to have a chapter of Tau Beta Pi.

2. Their Tau Beta Gamma is a small but active organization. Their size is limited because of a Sigma Tau chapter on campus.

3. None.

1. The quality of the Engineering Staff, the Programs and the students, as well as the interest of the University Administration in the Engineering College, are quite good.

2. Standards for nomination of candidates to Tau Beta Gamma appear to be high and procedures appear to be good. Both do not differ significantly from those of Tau Beta Pi.

3. The Kansas State University, without reservation, is worthy of being granted a chapter of Tau Beta Pi.

1. KSU has grown over a long period of years and its buildings and equipment vary from old to new. Faculty members we met were well qualified. Generally KSU rates Tau Beta Pi - coming in as a sort of middle of the road applicant

2. About 10 members of Tau Beta Gamma participated in the inspection and seemed to be a well qualified group. For them to compete with Sigma Tau must be quite a task but they seem to be making a success of it. Chapter activity is commendable.

3. None.

1. None.

2. I think a more serious approach to election of members must be taken. While it is recognized that many chapters may not conduct elections in exactly the way desired by the national officer, I do think that new and potential chapters should be encouraged toward a high standard-not discouraged by the poor performance of other chapters.

3. Maybe a newly founded Tau Beta Pi chapter at KSU could be concerned about being sure that potential students are informed about both the advantages and disadvantages of the approach toward education here.

1. Fully E.C.P.D. accredited curricula, long established, "shop oriented"

2. Operated under proper formal rules but underinformed administration. Excellent program of project work. Obvious faculty support for Tau Beta Pi.

3. Implications of new Tau Beta Pi chapter at school which has long had Sigma Tau chapter, with enthusiasm for Tau Beta Pi, are flattering to Tau Beta Pi.

Gentlemen: A committee of inspection, authorized by the Executive Council, visited Kansas State University on February 26, 1973. A preliminary petition from Tau Beta Gamma, local engineering honor society there, had been approved by the Council. The inspection team was composed of the following chapter representatives and national officers:

• Kansas Alpha (University of Kansas)

  • David W. Walter, president 

  • David M. Suptic, chapter member 

  • Prof. George W. Forman, advisor

• Kansas Beta (Wichita State University)

  • Dennis D. Hoover, president 

  • Ronnie H. Metcalf, chapter member 

  • John K. Sharp, chapter member 

  • Dr. Edward J. Rodgers, advisor

• National Officers

  • George P. Palo, President

  • G. Ronald Ames, Director of Chapter Development 

  • Robert H. Nagel, Secretary-Treasurer

The committee gathered at 10:00 a.m. in the Big 8 Room of the K-State Union on the Kansas State University campus and was served coffee and doughnuts. John H. Meiners, president of Tau Beta Gamma, welcomed the visitors and introduced his society's officers and advisors. Dean Ralph G. Nevins described Kansas State University and its College of Engineering. Seven engineering curricula are E.C.P.D. accredited; five of them offer graduate work to the Ph.D., and agricultural engineering is under the joint jurisdiction of the Colleges of Agriculture and of Engineering. Kansas State has approximately 900 undergraduate engineering students and 150 graduate students. Total enrollment of the University is approximately 15,000, Kansas State University is the land-grant institution of the state.

Mr. Meiners stated that Tau Beta Gamma had been organized more than two years ago in order to secure a Tau Beta Pi chapter. Kansas State University has had a chapter of Sigma Tau for many years. He described the general projects and programs of Tau Beta Gamma including a Boy Scout merit badge counseling service offered to local units of that organization.

Dr. Frank A. Tillman, faculty advisor to Tau Beta Gamma, said that he had encouraged the best engineering students of Kansas State University to seek a chapter of Tau Beta Pi because it is the better-known national engineering honor society.

Mr. Palo briefly described the governmental structure of Tau Beta Pi; Secretary Nagel referred to the petitioning process and said that full opportunity would be offered later in the day for Kansas State people to ask questions about Tau Beta Pi. Mr. Ames spoke briefly about the importance of chapters' conducting meaningful projects to attract appropriate attention and to fulfill its responsibilities to its institution.

From 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 m. the group was given general tours of the Kansas State University campus and surrounding areas with Tau Beta Gamma members and faculty as guides.

Lunch was served in a private room of the K-State Union with many Tau Beta Gamma members and engineering faculty present. Dr. J. A. McCain, president of the University, and Dr. Chester Peters, vice president for student affairs of the University, were at the luncheon and spoke with the visiting group, Both emphasized their support of the petition for a Tau Beta Pi chapter.

From about 1:30 to 3:00 p.m. the visitors were given detailed tours of the engineering buildings, visiting all of the departments and their laboratories. The inspectors were favorably impressed with the engineering facilities and equipment.

At 3:00 p.m. the inspection committee met again with Tau Beta Gamma members and interested faculty. The Kansas State University group asked a number of questions about Tau Beta Pi, the petitioning process, and chapter operations. Prof. Forman, who is national president of Sigma Tau, and Mr. Palo were asked about relations between Sigma Tau and Tau Beta Pi and they responded with information about the current status of merger negotiations between the two organizations. In response to questions by inspection team members, it was learned that the senior engineering class of K.S.U. usually is larger than might be indicated by the preceding year's junior class because of the "4 1/2 - year" curriculum, with the University classifying as seniors all students who have completed the third year of work. K.S.U. is also getting a number of junior-college transfers at the third-year level of engineering. Tau Beta Gamma has 28 active members currently and expects to initiate 5 to 10 more this spring. No formal courses in professionalism or ethics are offered at K.S.U. although the faculty and student organizations emphasize these topics in their normal work.

The committee was favorably impressed with the operations of Tau Beta Gamma and with student-faculty relations at K.S.U. The present competition between Tau Beta Gamma and the Sigma Tau chapter on campus for the time, interest, and money of the top students is not helping either group.

The committee was most graciously received at Kansas State University and expressed its appreciation to Tau Beta Gamma, Mr. Meiners, Dean Nevins, Dr. Tillman, and all who are interested in securing a chapter of Tau Beta Pi for their institution.

In a private meeting of the committee, report forms were distributed to all inspectors and they were asked to return them with their comments. A brief discussion of the day's activities and impressions was held. The visit was concluded at about 4:45 p.m.

Written reports have been received from all members of the inspection committee, and each recommends to the Executive Council and to the 1973 Convention that a chapter be granted to Kansas State University. All committee members report favorable impressions of the institution and of Tau Beta Gamma. The individual reports of the inspectors are a part of this report to the Executive Council. Sincerely yours, Robert H. Nagel

• Mr. Ronald L. Remke and Dean E. W. Kopp — Tau Beta Phi, University of South Florida

• Mr. John G. Meiners and Dr. F. A. Tillman — Tau Beta Gamma, Kansas State University

• Mr. Gary J. Rafferty and Father R. J. Arenz, S.J. — Lambda Epsilon, Loyola University of Los Angeles

• Mr. James B. Wesman and Professor Henri Feiner — Nu Iota Tau, Northrop Institute of Technology

Gentlemen: The Executive Council of Tau Beta Pi has accepted and approved the favorable reports of the inspection committees which visited your institutions recently. You now have full approval to proceed with the final steps in our petitioning process.

Please send me, by about June 1, 200 copies of your society’s final petition pamphlet and 200 copies of your school's most recent catalog. I shall distribute them during the summer to our 1973 Convention delegates. Also, ask your representatives to bring about 25 additional pamphlets and catalogs with them to the Convention next fall, to replace lost copies.

The Tau Beta Pi Convention will be held in Gainesville, Florida October 25-27, 1973. Your group must send at least one student and at least one faculty member as your official representatives. Enclosed is a report form for you to tell me who your representatives will be. Please complete the form and return it to me soon so that I may keep your people informed of our Convention plans and activities.

Your representatives will meet with the Convention Committee on Petitions on Thursday evening, October 25, in Gainesville. They should be prepared to answer questions about your society, your school, and your operations and projects. I shall give your representatives full details about their meeting with the committee when that committee is appointed during the coming summer.

Your representatives will also learn a great deal about Tau Beta Pi by participating fully in the Convention program. They will be afforded the same room and meal rates as all of our delegates and officers, and they will take part in the interesting and informative discussions. I'm sure it will be an experience they will value and enjoy.

If you have any questions about our procedures or the preparation of your final petition, don't hesitate to ask me.

I enjoyed our visit with your group and I look forward to further happy contacts with you. Sincerely yours, Robert H. Nagel