The First Greek Organization – Phi Beta Kappa Society
The Phi Beta Kappa Society, founded on 5 December 1776, at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, is generally recognized to be the first Greek-letter student society in North America. It was founded by John Heath, who had failed at admission to the two existing Latin-letter fraternities at the College, the F.H.C. Society (nicknamed as backronym the “Flat Hat Club“) and the P.D.A. Society (nicknamed “Please Don’t Ask”). The main developments associated with Phi Beta Kappa are the use of Greek-letter initials as a society name and the establishment of branches or “chapters” at different campuses, following the pattern set by Masonic lodges.
The Greek letters (ΦΒΚ) come from the motto Φιλοσοφία Βίου Κυβερνήτης (philosophia biou kybernētēs, “Philosophy is the helmsman of life”), now officially translated as “Philosophy is the guide of life”. Greek was chosen as the language for the motto due generally to classical education at the time, and specifically because Heath “was the best Greek scholar in college.” One official historian of the society, William T. Hastings, and some others believe that the society was originally knows by the Latin name Societas Philosophiae (Philosophical Society), and that the name Phi Beta Kappa only came to be taken as the society name over time. This use of Greek letters was briefly preceded by the use of Latin letters, notably the F.H.C. Society drawing its name from its secret motto, presumed to be “Fraternitas, Humanitas, et Cognitio” or “Fraternitas Humanitas Cognitioque” (two renderings of “brotherhood, humaneness, and knowledge”.
However, Phi Beta Kappa was very different from a typical college fraternity of today in that the membership was generally restricted to upperclassmen, if not seniors; and men who had been initiated as students continued to be active in the society after becoming members of the faculty of the host university. The annual Phi Beta Kappa exercises at Yale were public literary exercises, with as many or more faculty members of the society than undergraduate.
As Phi Beta Kappa developed it came to be an influential association of faculty and select students on several college campuses, with membership becoming more of an honor and less of social selection. The increasing influence of the society came to be seen by many as undemocratic and contrary to the free flow of intellectual ideas in American academia, and, as a curious side effect of the anti-masonic controversy of the early Republic, the secrets of Phi Beta Kappa in the appendix to a book published in 1831. After that time, Phi Beta Kappa ceased to be a social fraternity in any real sense and is now only an honorary society, although prominent and respected.
