PI GAMMA MU CELEBRATES MERCER'S LEADERSHIP

A decade ago, the Pi Gamma Mu social-science honor society was coping with a financial crisis, as its number of chapters and annual number of initiates were on the decline. The society was drowning in red ink and raiding its endowment fund to stay afloat.
Enter Dr. Gordon E. Mercer, Western Carolina University's professor of political science and public affairs (now professor emeritus) and founding director of the Public Policy Institute. In Oct. 2005, Mercer advanced from the office of international first vice president to the office of international president of Pi Gamma Mu. Within weeks, he activated an aggressive program to solicit chapter-building cooperation from professors at colleges that did not have Pi Gamma Mu chapters.

SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATION DEADLINE - JANUARY 30, 2013

Each year, Pi Gamma Mu awards 10 scholarships to outstanding members. Four are named scholarships, three are worth $2,000 each, and the other seven are worth $1,000 each. These scholarships are primarily intended for first-year graduate work in the social sciences. If you are interested in applying, you should start putting your information together right away. Applications must be fully completed and received at the Pi Gamma Mu office in Winfield with a postmark on or before January 30. Winners will be notified in March, with the grants awarded in September. Please check the Pi Gamma Mu Web site for information and the application form at:
http://www.pigammamu.org/scholarship_application.asp

SCHOLARSHIP WINNERS ANNOUNCED

After much deliberation on the part of the Scholarship Committee, Chairman Dr. Clara Small recommended the following scholarship winners to the Board of Trustees.

CONGRATULATIONS ARE IN ORDER

Mark Quintanilla, sponsor of the Missouri Iota chapter at Hannibal-LaGrange University, has been selected to be a Research and Teaching Fulbright Fellow in Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean for the 2012-2013 school term. Dr. Quintanilla will be traveling to St. Vincent and the Grenadines in the fall and Dominica in the spring. He will be assisting the local junior colleges which are part of the University of the West Indies system.

VIEW FROM THE PODIUM

Snatching Excellence from the Jaws of Mediocrity
As a professor in the social sciences, I am convinced that I have a responsibility to ensure that my students amass a mental repository of knowledge about my discipline (political science) and that they develop the capability to conduct research and report their discoveries coherently. My colleagues at North Georgia College & State University and I have discovered that we are far from having perfected the process of producing those results.

SHADOW PRESIDENT UPDATE

Four More Years
Despite a dismal and depressing four years characterized by high unemployment, political gridlock, exorbitant government spending, and intervention, Barack Obama was somehow re-elected as President of the United States, and given four more years to lead our nation. Obama's re-election is somewhat comparable to a sports coach who had four consecutive losing seasons, yet defied expectations of being fired and somehow managed to hold onto his or her job.

CHAPTERS IN ACTION

This issue has news on our chapters at Saint Leo University, Grove City College, Holy Family University, Mansfield University, and Wilmington University.

Holy Family University students lobbying for education on the steps inside the State Capitol building.

SCHOLARSHIP OPPORTUNITES

	D. C. Internships
	James Madison Fellowship
	Institute for Humane Studies
	University of Maryland Summer Research Initiative
	City Hall Fellows

SPECIAL REQUEST

In 1995, JSTOR began building a comprehensive digital archive of important scholarly journal literature. This company digitizes complete journal runs, back to the first issue published, and creates exact replicas of the original printed pages, issues, and volumes in digital form. This will ensure the preservation of the intellectual content of these journals. The Pi Gamma Mu board of trustees has signed a contract with JSTOR and shipped every complete journal in our headquarters to JSTOR for archiving purposes of International Social Science Review (formerly Social Science). There are some journals that are missing...

OPPORTUNITY FOR PROFESSORS

Aixa Powell, Dean of the Department of Behavioral Science and Humanities, is working with Pi Gamma Mu headquarters and the chancellor of the South/Southwest Region to charter a Pi Gamma Mu chapter at Monterrey Technological Institute in Mexico. This will be the first chapter in Mexico in the 88-year history of Pi Gamma Mu. We are very pleased to be working with Professor Powell in this endeavor.
Monterrey Technological Institute is looking for professors who would be willing to teach on their campus...

CLEARANCE SALE ON SHIRTS!

Pi Gamma Mu is having an inventory reduction sale! We are offering our Pi Gamma Mu polo shirts and sweatshirts (shown) at the reduced price of $25. You can purchase them from the Merchandise page of our Web site or call headquarters (620-221-3128).

HONOR CORDS

Honor cords are available at the Pi Gamma Mu office. You can proudly wear these attractive royal-blue and white cords at your graduation. The price of the cords is $15 each plus $2.95 for shipping and handling. Honor cords are our most popular item. Please plan ahead and order your honor cords early. Send your check and return mailing address to headquarters or call (620-221-3128) with your credit- or debit-card information.

PI GAMMA MU SOLICITS YOUR FINANCIAL SUPPORT

While Pi Gamma Mu is not the largest or wealthiest of the 62 national and international honor societies affiliated with the national Association of College Honor Societies (ACHS), arguably our international officers and trustees and our chapter sponsors are the hardest-working volunteers who can be found in any of the societies.

Please, would you consider being one of our tenacious partners? We gratefully accept donations of any size.

CHANGE OF ADDRESS

Anytime you move, such as after graduation, please notify the Pi Gamma Mu office immediately. This will prevent your mailings from being interrupted or discontinued. We would appreciate it if you would mail a change-of-address card, post card, or letter with your name and old and new address to: Pi Gamma Mu, 1001 Millington, Suite B, Winfield, KS 67156. You can also E-mail the information to us at executivedirector@pigammamu.org, or use the Web site form.

When you graduate, please give us a new E-mail address if you have been using your college address to receive your Pi Gamma Mu Newsletter. At some point (each college is different), your college E-mail address will be eliminated and you will no longer receive the newsletter or other information from Pi Gamma Mu.

OTHER NEWS

Call for Papers	[Read more...]
Ideals of Pi Gamma Mu	[Read more...]
Print Version (PDF)

Read the full newsletter online at PiGammaMu.org/newsletter/november2012/frontpage.html
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