About Mortar Board Honor Society

Basic Information

Mortar Board, a collegiate national honor society, has 209 chapters nationwide with a membership of over 200,000. Members are chosen based on their achievements in scholarship, leadership and service. During their senior year, members participate in various activities such as service projects supporting the national service project "Reading is Leading," student leadership training and awarding scholarships to other college students.

Ideals

The mortarboard is a symbol of ancient honor and distinction that carries with it grave responsibilities. In the earliest universities, student adopted the clerical or monastic robes as a sign that they were devoting their lives to the profession of learning, in recognition of which they received certain privileges. Such recognition is ours, and such responsibility is our privilege. We, too, wear a distinguishing sign, the mortarboard.

In ancient days, students from many lands who spoke diverse tongues were able to meet on a common ground by using the classic language of learning; and so we, students in many universities and colleges, are bound together by a motto shown to the world by three Greek letters, Pi, Sigma, Alpha, representing the ideals of Mortar Board: Service, Scholarship, and Leadership.

General History:

Mortar Board was the first national organization honoring senior college women. The evolution of Mortar Board mirrors an attempt to keep pace with an ever-changing society.

It was on the campus of the University of Chicago in the fall of 1915 when a member of Mortar Board from The Ohio State University met a member of Pi Sigma Chi from Swarthmore College. Both women wore similar pins in the shape of a mortarboard. Through discussion they realized each represented an honor society for women with similar election methods, operating procedures, ideals, and traditions. The main difference in the honor societies was their names.

The founding meeting for the organization of the national honor society took place at Syracuse University on February 15, 1918.  Representatives were from Cornell University, The University of Michigan, The Ohio State University, Swarthmore College as well as Syracuse University, which did not choose to join the national organization when it became Mortar Board following the founding meeting.

The founding meeting adopted the pin of The Ohio State University, a small black mortarboard. A motto was adopted, taken from the Greek words meaning service, scholarship, and leadership, to be represented by three Greek letters, Pi Sigma Alpha, the letters which appear on the pin.  The constitution was adopted from a tentative plan outlined by Swarthmore.  Officially the society remained nameless until the second convention at The University of Michigan, but correspondence with prospective chapters following the February 1918 meeting referred to the new organization as Mortar Board, the name and spelling of the Ohio State honor society.

Timeline:

Significant events in the history of Mortar Board can be traced through activities at its conventions:

• At the second convention at The University of Michigan on April 25, 1919, it was decided the national officers should come from the ranks of alumni.


• At the February 1923 convention at Swarthmore College delegates voted to establish districts in Mortar Board to facilitate the growing size of the organization, composed of eighteen chapters.


• In the fall of 1924, the Fifth National Convention at the University of Kentucky authorized publication of the Mortar Board Quarterly.


• On February 27, 1937, Mortar Board was invited to become a member of the Association of College Honor Societies--the only organization composed entirely of women to be so recognized at this time.


• The Katherine Wills Coleman Fellowship for graduate work was established at the 1941 Convention in Buck Hill Falls, Pennsylvania.  The Fellowship carried an award of $500 and was given to an active member of Mortar Board who could qualify as a candidate for a degree beyond the bachelor's in an accepted university.


• The Fourteenth National Convention, held at Breezy Point, Minnesota, in 1949 with 81 chapters present, established the Coral Vanstrum Stevens Gift Membership, which may be awarded annually by each chapter to a person needing financial assistance in order to accept membership.


• The Mortar Board Foundation Fund was established by action of the 1955 Convention in response to inquiries for a means by which contributions might be made to advance the purposes of the organization.


• The Twenty-First National Conference (the first time for the use of the term "conference") held in June 1970 at the University of Nebraska established a National Office at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.  The Conference voted to invite student advisors to meet annually with the National Council and replaced the Quarterly with a newsletter, The Mortar Board Forum.


• Delegates to the 1973 National Conference at The Ohio State University retained membership for women only. The first Mortar Board National Citation, instituted to honor women who made outstanding contributions to the status of women within the society's ideals, was presented to Congresswoman Martha W. Griffiths of Michigan.


• A special conference was convened in October 1975 at Kansas City, Missouri, to consider the ramifications of Title IX regulations, prohibiting sex discrimination within organizations on campuses that are recipients of federal funds.  Membership was opened to male students and the purpose was strengthened to include "to promote and advance the status of women."


• The 1976 National Conference held at the Colorado State University included men as voting delegates. This conference dealt with the question of the society's purpose. Delegates reaffirmed the purpose "to emphasize the advancement of the status of women" as well as "to promote equal opportunities among all people."


• In Nashville, Tennessee, at the 1982 National Conference, the impact of diminished government support for higher education was a major concern of the delegates who responded by directing a significant increase in the Mortar Board Fellowship program.


• At the 1985 Conference in Columbus, Ohio, Mortar Board delegates passed a resolution to initiate a national project to be selected by each national conference.  The delegates selected organ donor awareness as the first national project.  Delegates also voted to hold National Conferences biennially.


• In Indianapolis at the 1987 Conference, men were elected to the National Council for the first time and delegates voted to have an elected Student Representative-at-Large added to the National Council.  The National Project became part of the Bylaws.


• The 75th Anniversary of Mortar Board's founding was celebrated in July 1993 at the 30th National Conference held in Columbus, Ohio.  Eight former National Presidents attended the banquet that highlighted a year marked with chapter celebrations and great success toward endowing the Foundation Fund.


• At the 1995 National Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona, delegates voted to hold National Conferences annually.


• A second Student Representative was added to the National Council at the 1996 National Conference in Columbus, Ohio.

Local History:

The Lux chapter of Mortar Board at Case Western Reserve was founded as the Lux Honor Society at Mather College. The petition was sent to Mortar Board during the 1951 year and the chapter was installed in 1952. The original honor society at Mather College was started in 1941 and was completely female.

National Organization:

The National Office is located on the campus of The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. It is the source of records and information related to chapter operations, national conferences, alumni, the Mortar Board Foundation, a Career Network database and the National Archives of Mortar Board. It is staffed by the Executive Director, Communications Coordinator, Chapter Development Coordinator, Membership Coordinator, Development Director and Administrative Assistant. They quickly respond to all requests and questions.