PUC Introduces New Honor Society

Pacific Union College recently inducted 11 students into its newly established Epsilon Rho Chapter of Lambda Pi Eta, the national honor society for communication.

In the Greek alphabet, Lambda, Pi, and Eta are the first letters of the words logos, pathos, and ethos, which are listed by Aristotle in The Rhetoric as the three modes of persuasion.

The purpose of Lambda Pi Eta is to recognize, foster, and reward outstanding scholastic achievement in communication studies. The Epsilon Rho Chapter plans to promote development of its members by sharing original research, participating in speech contests, and stimulating discussion in the field of communication.

Shelia Hsu, president of the PUC chapter, said students were excited about starting the society. "We wanted to learn more about certain aspects of communication that we didn't have a lot of exposure to," Hsu said. "It gives us the freedom to explore things outside of the classroom."

Students may obtain membership by meeting several requirements. They must be full-time students with at least 90 quarter credit-hours completed; they must be in the top 35 percent of their academic class; they must have a minimum cumulative GPA of at least 3.0 for all courses taken; and have a GPA of at least 3.25 for communication courses.

Lambda Pi Eta joins seven other national honor societies on Pacific Union College's campus: Sigma Tau Delta (English); Phi Alpha Theta (history); Psi Chi (psychology); Phi Eta Sigma (freshman); Phi Alpha (social work); Theta Alpha Kappa (religion); and Pi Kappa Lambda (music).