The 1970's brought a fresh and final attempt at a K-State Tau Beta Pi chapter. After the Steel Ring Suggestion failed, it was clear that a new vehicle was needed to create the Kansas Gamma Chapter. After a few years of inaction, it was Dr. Frank Tillman who finally set things into motion when he led the formation of the local Tau Beta Gamma honor society which was patterned after Tau Beta Pi. Tau Beta Gamma was founded in the fall of 1970 and submitted its preliminary petition to HQ in December 1972. 

• Michael Floyd Gard, electrical engineering student at K-State

• Ralph Ernest Warmack (MO-A 1967), Assistant Secretary-Treasurer of Tau Beta Pi

• Robert Hamilton Nagel (NY-D 1939), 2nd Secretary-Treasurer of Tau Beta Pi

• Frank Aubrey Tillman (MO-A 1960), Professor and Industrial Engineering Dept. Head at K-State

• Curtis E Jilg (KS-G 1972), Corresponding Secretary of Tau Beta Gamma

• John H. Meiners, President of Tau Beta Gamma

Gentlemen: During the last several months there has been a good deal of interest shown by various students and faculty members at Kansas State University regarding the formation of a chapter of Tau Beta Pi here. At their request, I am writing to you in hopes of obtaining all the necessary information and forms relating to the establishment of a Tau Beta Pi chapter.

We have been in contact with the Missouri Alpha chapter at Columbia, Missouri, and they have agreed to be the sponsoring chapter. One of their alumni, Dr. Frank Tillman, has consented to act as the KSU chapter advisor if a chapter is established at K State, If for any reason you wish to communicate with Dr. Tillman, he can be reached at the following address:

Dr. Frank A. Tillman Mo. A '60 

Department of Industrial Engineering 

College of Engineering 

Kansas State University 

Manhattan, Kansas 66502

It would be greatly appreciated if you could send me the required information as soon as possible, as the Missouri chapter has informed us that you must have our petition by January 1 of 1971 in order to act on it that year. Thank you in advance, Michael F. Gard

Dear Mr. Gard: Thank you for your letter of August 6, requesting information about the establishment of new Tau Beta Pi chapters. Secretary Nagel and I are delighted to hear that engineering students and faculty at Kansas State are Interested in Tau Beta Pi.

Our last correspondence with someone at Kansas State was in April 1968. At that time, then Assistant Dean Kenneth K. Gowdy Inquired about the possibility of using the Steel Ring Society to meet Tau Beta Pi's recommendation that a local honor society be in existence for two years before the establishment of a chapter. Several items in the Constitution of the Steel Ring Society did not follow the pattern of honor societies. It was recommended to Dean Gowdy that the society change its Constitution to make it a true local honor society in preparation for a petition to Tau Beta Pi. But we haven't heard from him since!

I am enclosing a copy of the Constitution and Bylaws of Tau Beta Pi, and I refer you specifically to our requirements for the establishment of collegiate chapters. These are stated in Bylaw IV, on pages 24 and 25 of the booklet. Our procedure for requesting a chapter of Tau Beta Pi is stated in Constitution Article VI, on pages 8 and 9 of the booklet. And, our membership eligibility provisions, which are vital in an honor society, are stated in considerable detail in Constitution Article VIII, starting on page 10 of the booklet.

I also enclose copies of recent successful petitions which you might consider as models for your own. I would specifically call your attention to the Constitution and Bylaws of the local societies which presented these petitions, which documents are reprinted in their booklets. A copy of our Tau Beta Pi brochure and a booklet titled ‘'Information About Tau Beta Pi" are enclosed also.

It is appropriate for you to be in contact with the Missouri Alpha chapter at the University of Missouri, Columbia. I myself am an alumnus of that institution and chapter. And we are delighted to hear that Dr. Frank A. Tillman, Missouri Alpha '60, has consented to act as your advisor. In fact, Dr. Tillman might serve as an advisor to your local honor society and help you pattern it on a Tau Beta Pi chapter too!

Missouri Alpha is correct in informing you that a petition must be received by the Executive Council of Tau Beta Pi by January 1 of the year in which the Convention might act on it. Petitions received last winter will be acted upon by our 1970 Convention in Columbus, Ohio this October. The 1971 Convention will be held here in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Secretary Nagel and I would like to hear more about your local honor society and the preparations you have made for the establishment of a Tau Beta Pi chapter. We would be happy to answer your questions and give you specific advice about the organization of your local society.

I am sure that you will have additional questions about Tau Beta Pi and about the operation of your local group. Please don’t hesitate to present those questions to me. Sincerely yours, Ralph E. Warmack, Assistant Secretary-Treasurer

Dear Dr. Tillman: Thanks very much for your phone call yesterday. I am delighted to know that you are going ahead with the organization of a local engineering society at Kansas State. I want to do everything I can to help in this project, looking toward the establishment of a Tau Beta Pi chapter institution as soon as possible.

Under separate cover I have sent you six copies of our current Constitution and Bylaws booklet, six copies of our information booklet, several of our brief brochures describing Tau Beta Pi, and a copy of the initiation ceremony of Tau Beta Pi. Please keep the initiation ritual private for the time being because-our chapters have not yet had time to vote on the proposal to make our ritual public.

I shall appreciate the opportunity to check over your proposed local society Constitution and Bylaws for technical compliance with our rules and operating procedures. It might save some embarrassments if we catch little discrepancies early.

I certainly appreciate your taking the lead in getting the Tau Beta Pi idea going at Kansas State. We recognize that the existence of a Sigma Tau chapter on your campus is a deterrent, and Tau Beta Pi has no desire to hurt that organization in any way. But Tau Beta Pi has grown much more rapidly than Sigma Tau and is far more widely known and recognized in both the collegiate and industrial world. Tau Beta Pi therefore has something worthwhile to offer to the top engineering students of Kansas State University, in our opinion. Sincerely yours, Robert H. Nagel

Dear Mr. Nagel: Enclosed are copies of our constitution and bylaws for the local chapter of Tau Beta Pi which we designate as Tau Beta Gamma.

Would you please review this material and indicate any changes necessary so that we may successively petition in two years for membership in the Tau Beta Pi. Thank you for your interest. Sincerely, Dr. Frank A. Tillman, Professor and Head, Department of Industrial Engineering

Constitution of Tau Beta Gamma

Preamble:

The members of the School of Engineering at the Kansas State University, desiring to be incorporated in Tau Beta Pi, form Tau Beta Gamma for the purpose of recognizing in a fitting manner those who have distinguished themselves as students or by their eminent attainments as graduates in the field of engineering, of promoting scholastic incentive and cultural development of engineering students at Kansas State University.

Article 1: Name

The organization shall be titled Tau Beta Gamma, the undergraduate Engineering Honor Society of the College of Engineering, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas.

Article II: Pattern

This engineering honor society shall be patterned after the national engineering honor society, Tau Beta Pi Association, Inc. in every way and as explicitly set forth in the Constitution of Tau Beta Gamma Honor Society.

Article III: Purpose

The purpose of this organization shall be:

1. To give recognition to outstanding engineering students who have attained honor rating in their college courses.

2. To foster high scholarship among lower classmen by establishing an incentive for them to achieve honors necessary for admission to the society.

3. To keep close contact with alumni, with the hope of furthering the aims of the society and the school.

4. To become affiliated eventually with the national honorary engineering fraternity, Tau Beta Pi.

5. To promote the profession of engineering in the college and community.

6. To engage in activities for the betterment of the community.

Article IV: Membership

Section 1: The membership of this organization shall consist of regularly enrolled undergraduates, at the Kansas State University at Manhattan, Kansas are engineering students, meeting the prescribed qualifications.

Section 2: Eligibility Requirements

• Students scholastically in the upper eighth of the junior engineering class in the beginning of the junior year would be eligible for election in the fall term. However, no more than three people or twenty five percent of this group may be selected (whichever is the greater). The remainder of the upper eighth will be eligible for election in the beginning of the spring term.

• Those senior students whose scholastic average fall within the upper fifth of the senior class would be eligible for election at the beginning of the fall or spring term of their senior year.

• Transfer students must have completed 25 hours of work at Kansas State in order to be eligible for membership.

Section 3: Election of members. There will be two elections and initiations of undergraduates each year. It shall be held as soon as practicable after the data determining the scholastic ability of the candidates have been made.

Section 4: Members should be prepared to spend at a minimum of four hours per month in the service of Tau Beta Gamma.

Section 5: A member in good standing is one who is not under censure by this organization and has paid his dues.

Section 6 (a): For continued and unexcused absences from regularly called meetings of this Society, negligence of assigned duties, in­excusable failure to meet any financial obligations, conviction or violation of the University Honor Code, or for other just cause, the active members or Advisory Council may make recommendations to the Executive Council to institute expulsion proceedings.

Section 6 (b): Expulsion shall be by a three-fourth's majority on a secret ballot of active members.

Section 7: Expulsion consists of the following: (1) Return of badge and certification of membership. (2) Complete severance of all con­nection with the Society.

Section 8: A member may appeal his case to the Advisory Board or Executive Council in light of new evidence.

Section 9: A member not in good standing shall forfeit all rights and privileges of his membership until such time as he is reinstated.

Section 10: Membership in other societies, fraternities, or organizations shall not disbar a candidate from election into this society.

Section 11: All former members of this society who have completed their undergraduate 

studies shall be termed alumni members.

Article V: Government 

Section 1: The officers of this organization shall be President, Vice President, Recording Secretary, Corresponding Secretary, Treasurer, Cataloger, and Advisory Council. These officers shall be elected by a majority vote.

Section 2: Any active member in good standing would be eligible for office.

Section 3: To be eligible for President, one must be a member of the society for at least one semester.

Section 4: There shall be an election of the officers during the first meeting in May of each year. The offices will be held until the next election.

Section 5: In case a vacancy occurs in the office of president, the vice president shall automatically become president, and a new vice president shall be appointed by the advisory council. Other vacancies shall be filled by appointment by the Advisory Council. All such appointments shall be subject to approval of the undergraduate membership by a majority vote.

Section 6: Any officer may be removed by a three-quarter vote of the active chapter. 

Section 7: The Advisory Council shall consist of the president, vice president, corresponding secretary, two alumni members, and a faculty advisor. The alumni members shall serve for terms of one year.

Section 8: The Executive Council is a group at the national level of Tau Beta Pi, which assumes the leadership of the honorary.

Article VI: Meetings.

Section 1: Regular meetings of this organization shall be held once a month during the school year and shall be called by the president. Special meetings may be called by the advisory council or president.

Section 2: General meetings of a social or technical character shall be held each term as warranted.

Article VII: Advisor.

There shall be a faculty advisor, who shall be a member ex-officio without a vote. He shall be a member of the Tau Beta Pi association.

Article VIII: Finances.

Section 1: All members of the Society may be assessed fees as required for the proper functioning of this organization provided such an assessment is authorized by the council and passed by a majority vote of the members of this organization.

Section 2: Funds are to be entrusted to the treasurer for safe keeping, subject to the semi-annual audit by the advisory council.

Section 3: A checking account shall be established in the name of Tau Beta Gamma, with the president or treasurer signing.

Article IX: Amendments.

Section 1: Amendments and Bylaws to this constitution may be submitted by any active member in good standing at any regular meeting. Notices of proposed amendments shall be sent to all members prior to the next regular meeting when the amend­ments shall be voted on.

Section 2: An amendment shall be passed by a 3/4 vote of the quorum, relating to voting on amendments, as defined in the bylaws.

Article X: Initiation.

Section 1: Initiation of new members shall be held as early as possible in the fall and spring semesters.

Section 2: The initiation procedure shall be as prescribed in the Bylaws of this constitution.

BY-LAWS OF TAU BETA GAMMA

By-Law I: Quorum

Section 1. A majority of the members of the council shall constitute a quorum at meetings of the council.

Section 2. A majority of student members shall constitute a quorum at regular meetings.

Section 3. A quorum must be present at any meeting at which a vote is taken committing the organization to any proposal. Without a quorum, meetings may be held at which members are inducted, proposals are submitted to the Society, matters of interest to the organization are discussed, or programs are formu­lated, but there shall be no formal voting on such matters.

Section 4. The quorum for purposes of constitutional amendments, elections, changing of initiation fees or chapter dues, passing assessments of student members, and disciplinary action shall consist of three quarters of the membership.

By-Law II: Order of Business

The order of business at all meetings shall be as follows:

1. Roll call

2. Reading of minutes

3. Reports of officers, committees, etc.

4. Unfinished business

5. New business

6. Adjournment

By-Law III: Procedure

Section 1. All undergraduate members shall have equal voting power. The alumni members shall have no vote.

Section 2. If questions concerning parliamentary procedure arise Roberts "Rules of Order Revised" shall govern in all points not specifically covered in the constitution and by-laws of this organization.

By-Law IV: Duties of Officers

Section 1. It shall be the duty of the president to act as a responsible agent and leader of this chapter. He shall preside at all meetings, appoint all committees (subject to approval by a majority vote of the active body). He shall cast the deciding vote in case of a tie in all things except elections.

Section 2. The vice president shall act in the capacity of any officer who is not present at the meeting. He shall act as parliamentarian at all meetings. He shall be a member of all committees.

Section 3. It shall be the duty of the Recording Secretary to keep the minutes of the regular meetings completely typewritten, up to date, and in a suitable folder.

Section 4. It shall be the duty of the Corresponding Secretary to carry on such correspondence of the Society as the President or any other officer may direct.

Section 5. The Treasurer shall be in charge of all funds and bills of this Society. He shall maintain a bank account in the name of the Society.

Section 6. It shall be the duty of the Cataloger to keep an up-to-date record of all active and alumnus members, including full name, home address, and the college address.

Section 7. The advisory council shall formulate any necessary policies, such as the preparation of a budget, for presentation to the membership of this Society.

Section 8. The Advisory Council shall act as an advisory and judicial com­mittee to determine the advisability of any action taken or proposed by the Society, brought before it by the petition of a minority of the Society, referred to it by a vote of the same, or considered on its own initiative. All changes in the Bylaws must be submitted to, and approved by, the Advisory Council before going into effect. By a majority vote, the Advisory Council may forbit any such action or change, subject to an appeal to the Executive Council.

Bylaw V: Committees

Section 1(a). The Society shall have standing committees on membership-initiation, activities, and such other committees as the President shall de­sire to establish.

Section 1(b). The President shall provide written lists of specific duties and responsibilities to the committee chairmen.

Section 2(a). The committee chairmen shall be appointed by the President and subject to the approval of the chapter.

Section 2(b). The committee members shall then be appointed by the chairmen and the President.

By-Law VI:

The initiation will be set up by the membership committee.

Dear Dr. Tillman: Thank you for your December 14 letter and copies of the Constitution and Bylaws of Tau Beta Gamma. I presume that your local society has now been formed officially, and properly recognized by the authorities of your institution, and that it can look toward giving us a formal request for a chapter of Tau Beta Pi by December 31, 1972.

In the meantime, I hope that someone in Tau Beta Gamma will keep me posted from time to time on progress and activities of the local group. We are interested and want to keep in touch.

I have reviewed the Constitution and Bylaws of Tau Beta Gamma and I find only one significant point on which to comment. It concerns your Constitution Article IV, on Membership, Section 2(a). The second sentence of that sub-section is not quite in agreement with Tau Beta Pi's numerical limitation on the number of first-term juniors who may be elected to membership in a chapter. Please see our Constitution Article VIII, Section 2(f), near the top of page 12 of the enclosed booklet. The 25% limitation is intended to be a fraction of the then current total student membership of the chapter, not a fraction of the total number of first-term juniors who may be in the top eighth of their class. I suggest that your provision be reworded to agree with the Tau Beta Pi provision.

A further suggestion, although not a requirement of petitioning societies, is that the alumnus members (including faculty) of the Advisory Board (or Council) of a chapter serve four-year terms on a staggered basis. The purpose of this policy in Tau Beta Pi is to provide continuity within the Advisory Board, particularly in the face of major membership turnover annually within the student group. Tau Beta Gamma's Constitution Article V, Section 7, sets up your Advisory Council in a little different fashion, as regards the alumnus members of the Council. Perhaps it is your intention to have the the faculty member of the Advisory Council serve more than one year by re-election thus providing the continuity that is desirable. Please see Tau Beta Pi's Constitution Article VI, Section 7, on pages 9 and 10 of the booklet.

If it is Tau Beta Gamma’s intention to have two non-faculty alumnus members of its Advisory Council, I applaud that Intent. An increasing number of our chapters are adding non-faculty alumni, particularly local industrial members, to their Advisory Boards, with mutually beneficial results.

My final comment is much less important. In several places in your Constitution and Bylaws reference is made to Tau Beta Pi as a "national honorary engineering fraternity." There is no such animal. These are technical terms, sir, and in engineering we try to use technical terms accurately, don’t we? Tau Beta Pi is properly called a National Engineering Honor Society. I confess that my railing about this point over the past 25 years has changed the speech habits of almost nobody! Sincerely yours, Robert H. Nagel

Dear Mr. Nagel: We, the members of Tau Beta Gamma at Kansas State University, recently held our 2nd meeting of this academic year. The question concerning when we will become an active chapter of Tau Beta Pi National Honorary has been raised by many new and prospective members. We would like to become an active chapter at the end of this academic year (1971-1972) and were wondering if this is possible. This would permit next year’s members to belong to a national chapter. If this is not possible, when would we become eligible?

It is also of interest to us that we are carrying out our activities and requirements correctly. Please inform us if there is anything we haven’t done, any reports that we haven’t filed, or any correspondence we have not carried on in order to fulfill the requirements of becoming a chapter of Tau Beta Pi.

We would deeply appreciate any information concerning this matter on where we stand. Sincerely, Curtis E. Jilg, Corresponding Secretary, Tau Beta Gamma

Dear Curtis: I'm glad to have your letter of October 20 and to know Tau Beta Gamma is progressing well.

Actually, you owe me no official reports because your group is not yet chartered as a Tau Beta Pi chapter, but I do appreciate being kept up-to-date on your activities and programs.

The earliest date by which Tau Beta Pi could officially give consideration to a formal petition for a chapter at Kansas State University is January 1, 1973. This is based on my understanding that Tau Beta Gamma was established in the fall of 1970. Under our requirement that a local engineering honor society patterned directly on Tau Beta Pi must operate for at least two years, we would not be able to give consideration to your petition until that requirement had been met. The purpose of the requirement, by the way, is not to delay the establishment of a chapter at Kansas State; rather, it is to give the faculty and administrative officials of your institution full opportunity to see how honor society of this sort can serve before becoming committed to national affiliation.

However, it would be quite proper for your Tau Beta Gamma members this academic year to prepare your preliminary petition and give it to us late in the spring or early in the summer of 1972. Then, by the time formal action was taken by our people, the two-year requirement would have been met.

Do you have samples of recent successful petitions booklets in Tau Beta Pi? If not, I can send you a couple and you could begin to collect the Information required and put it in shape for producing six copies of your preliminary book let, which would constitute your preliminary petition.

Members of Tau Beta Gamma will be quite automatically eligible for initiation into Tau Beta Pi once the Kansas State University chapter has been granted and installed. This is not the same, I know, as getting Tau Beta Pi membership while you are still in school, but it is the way that Tau Beta Pi requires.

I appreciate your writing to me and I want to keep in touch with you and your group this year because we are coming close to the time when formal action can be taken with regard to Tau Beta Gamma. Sincerely yours, Robert H. Nagel

Dear Mr. Nagel: I am the new president of the Tau Beta Gamma society at Kansas State University. We are currently seeking recognition as a chapter of Tau Beta Pi. I wish to obtain from you the exact steps we must take to become a Tau Beta Pi chapter.

I have a copy of your letter to Mr. Curtis E. Jilg of October 25, 1971. In this letter, you state that a formal petition for acceptance as a chapter can be officially considered by Tau Beta Pi on January 1, 1973.

I have copies of two recent successful petitions booklets. I would like to inquire if there exists a set of guidelines to the forming of such a booklet or should we merely pattern ours after the samples? AIso, which sections are considered mandatory and which are unnecessary? I refer specifically to the tedious job of accumulating faculty resumes.

I understand that we are to produce six copies of our petition booklet. To whom are these to be mailed? Should any other information accompany the booklets?

In general, I would like to hear from you what actions we must take and what further requirements must we meet? Thank you very much for your help. Sincerely, John H. Meiners

Dear John: Thank you for your August 27 letter, I'm pleased to know that you are the new president of Tau Beta Gamma, and I look forward to working with you on this Tau Beta PI project this year.

Yes, Tau Beta Pi can give full consideration to a petition for a new chapter from Tau Beta Gamma during the coming academic year. If that is your wish, then you should prepare six copies of your formal petition in preliminary form (by the cheapest possible duplication method) and send them to me, along with six copies of the Kansas State University catalog (College of Engineering catalog if it is printed separately) by January 1, 1973. Those six copies would be studied by our Executive Council whose responsibility is to make a preliminary decision about the establishment of any new chapter. If the Council’s decision is favorable, then we should arrange to pay a one-day visit of inspection to Tau Beta Gamma and K.S.U., in February or March, on a mutually agreeable date. The inspection committee would include several national officers of Tau Beta Pi plus student and faculty representatives of other Tau Beta Pi chapters near you.

The inspection committee would report back to our Executive Council. If that report should be favorable, we should ask your group then to prepare your final petition booklet (again by inexpensive but reasonably attractive means) in 250 copies. Those copies, plus an equal number of the appropriate K.S.U. catalogs concerned with engineering, would be sent to me by June 1, 1973. I would distribute them to our 1973 Convention delegates in the summer so that they would have opportunity to look the material over before voting on your petition at the 1973 national Convention. That Convention will be held in Gainesville, Florida October 25-27, 1973. Tau Beta Gamma would be represented at the Convention by at least one student and one faculty member. The Convention makes the final decision about the establishment of new collegiate chapters in Tau Beta Pi.

I recognize the large amount of work that Tau Beta Pi requires in preparing a petition. But our Bylaws require it, and I have no authority to exempt you or any other group. Incidentally, other petitioning groups in recent years have found that the faculty resumes we require are most easily obtained from Information prepared by the Dean of Engineering for the E.C.P.D. You should inquire of your dean about this. He may have the material in almost perfect order for your purposes.

Have I answered your questions, I hope? A copy of the current Constitution and Bylaws booklet of Tau Beta Pi is enclosed. See especially Bylaw IV and Constitution Article VI, Section 2. Any more questions? Sincerely yours, Robert H. Nagel

Dear Mr. Nagel: Thank you very much for your letter of August 30, 1972. It provided much of the informations needed. Following your suggestion, we have obtained most of the material needed for our petition.

One point, however, is troublesome. I understand that we much provide 6 copies of the KSU catalog with our preliminary petition and 250 copies with our final petition. The College of Engineering does not produce a separate catalog and our general catalog is 317 full size pages. It would cost us $1.50 each for a total of $384.00 to purchase these catalogs. We are by no means a rich chapter. I am not even sure that 256 copies of the catalog would be available. Is there something we can do about this problem?

One other question is about the differences between the preliminary and final petitions. Are they the same or do we add more information in the final petition? Should the preliminary petition contain a petitioning letter?

One of our Agricultural Engineers was wondering why Tau Beta Pi seems to discriminate against AgE's. I refer to Bylaw IV, Section 4.01, 3(e) 4, which does not allow a chapter to count the AgE department. He indicated that there were other examples also.

Our advisor, Dr. Frank Tillman, also wished me to ask you exactly what your inspection committee would be inspecting for.

Thank you again for your time. Sincerely, John H. Meiners (President of Kansas State University Tau Beta Gamma)

Dear John: Thank you for your November 8 letter. I gather that you are planning to hand us your preliminary petition by December 31 of this year. Excellent!

We certainly don't want to put your little local society to any such expense for 250 copies of the Kansas State University catalog. The main purpose of Tau Beta Pi's asking for college catalogs with petitions Is to make It easy for the local group to answer the questions Implied In our Bylaw IV and to give our people a general overall view of the Institution. But you can give the detailed answers required In your petition pamphlet Itself, perhaps using only one or two pages to do so, which would be much cheaper of course. As for giving us a general view of Kansas State University, perhaps there Is available at little or no cost a small Informational brochure such as Institutions frequently give to prospective students.

In any event, please give us six copies of the full K.S.U. catalog with your preliminary petition so that our Executive Council can get all the Information It wants. Then we can consider the bigger problem of 250 more copies of something later, perhaps during our inspection visit.

The difference between the preliminary and final petitions Is this: After reviewing your preliminary petition and visiting with you, our people may have some questions that could be answered in your final petition pamphlet. The things that our Executive Council and Inspection team members might ask are likely to be the same questions that our Convention would ask later. We'll head off those Convention questions by answering them In the final petition.

Yes, your preliminary petition should contain the formal "petitioning letter" specifically asking for the chapter of Tau Beta PI.

Your agricultural engineering member has a legitimate gripe. Our Constitution and Bylaws ought to be revised In this and some other details. Agricultural engineering Is no longer the "weak" engineering program It once was where the curriculum Is now E.C.P.D. accredited. Tau Beta Pi has at least 30 chapters where agricultural engineers are routinely considered, elected, and initiated into Tau Beta Pi, along with all other engineering students. In fact, I cannot think of a Tau Beta Pi chapter institution which offers agricultural engineering today whose students are not routinely eligible for membership.

In answer to Dr. Tillman, our inspection committee will be interested in those things outside of E.C.P.D. accreditation or beyond the concerns of the E.C.P.D. For example, while E.C.P.D. accredits engineering curricula for a limited time, Tau Beta Pi establishes chapters, hopefully, forever. The long-range future of engineering at a petitioning institution is therefore of more interest to us than the present status. We also want to determine whether a Tau Beta Pi chapter at a petitioning institution would have, and continue to have, the support of the faculty and administration of the institution. Without such support, a Tau Beta Pi chapter cannot long exist. Tau Beta Pi is also interested in the work of the local honor society, as an indicator of the kinds of things the chapter itself would be engaged in once chartered. During the inspection visit we would ask how your local group determines scholastically eligible candidates and how it selects its members from the scholastically eligible group. Our interest in these matters is both mechanical and philosophical. Our people would also want to know what kind of work the local group has been engaged in, beyond merely electing and initiating new members periodically. Does the local society feel an obligation to its college and its community and how does it meet that responsibility.

These are the things we would talk about. Eyeball to eyeball so to speak, during the one-day inspection visit. It would also be our purpose to give you and your group all the information you might want about Tau Beta Pi; so the visit is, as I call it, a two-way street, with answering your questions equally important with answering our questions. I’d like to think of a different name for our inspection committee, which would more clearly reflect its two purposes but the word "inspection" is rooted in our lexicon and is hard to dislodge. Sincerely yours, Robert H. Nagel