Phi Beta Kappa

ΦΒΚ — pΦpιλοσοφiα Βiου Κυβερνiτης (philosophia biou kybernetes)
"Love of learning is the guide of life."

Founded in 1776, Phi Beta Kappa is the oldest and most prestigious academic honor society in the United States.  Phi Beta Kappa celebrates excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, serving as the nation's leading advocate for freedom of inquiry and expression, disciplinary rigor, breadth of intellectual perspective, the cultivation of skills of deliberation and ethical reflection, the pursuit of wisdom, and the application of the fruits of scholarship and research in practical life.  The Phi Beta Kappa Society sponsors activities to advance these studies — the humanities, the social sciences, and the natural sciences — in higher education and in society at large. 

The Rho Chapter of California was established at California State University, Long Beach in 1977. CSULB is one of 22 colleges and universities in California -- and only one of three in the California State University system -- to be granted a Phi Beta Kappa chapter.  Our inclusion in this selective group of institutions is a testament to our university's excellence in the liberal arts and sciences. 

Only the most outstanding arts and sciences students at America’s leading colleges and universities are invited to join the Society. In fact, there are only 276 Phi Beta Kappa chapters across the United States.  In the nearly 225 year of its existence, those chapters have selectively inducted approximately 500,000 members. 

• Seventeen U.S. Presidents were Phi Beta Kappa members, including Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, Harry S. Truman, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, and John Quincy Adams.
   
• Nearly all of the current and recent Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court are members of Phi Beta Kappa, including Chief Justices John G. Roberts, William H. Rehnquist, and Earl Warren.  Current and recent ΦBK Associate Justices include Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, Samuel Alito, Stephen Bryer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, David H. Souter, Anthony Kennedy, John Paul Stevens, Lewis Franklin Powell, Harry A. Blackmun, Byron R. White, Potter Stewart, and William O. Douglas.

Some of Phi Beta Kappa’s other famous members include: