Mortar Board

Mortar Board, Inc., is a national honor society of college seniors. The society recognizes in its membership the
qualities of superior scholastic ability, outstanding and continual leadership, and dedicated service to the college
or university community.

Although it is an honor to be selected for membership in Mortar Board, it is that willingness of the selected individual to
make the commitment to continue to serve that differentiates an honor society from an honorary. When the individual
accepts membership, this acceptance indicates the person's agreement to accept the responsibility and obligation to be
an active participant in the chapter. This commitment is an agreement to actively support the ideals of the society.

Each of the over 182 chapters is challenged to provide thoughtful leadership to the campus and community;
to create an environment of effective communication; to move toward a meaningful goal, and to continue to maintain
the ideals of the society. Each chapter has the autonomy to determine its own implementation of the goals and
resolutions set forth by delgates to the National Conference.
---Excerpted from materials provided by the National Mortar Board organization

Background Information – UB LAUNCH Chapter of Mortar Board

MORTAR BOARD

UB LAUNCH (Leaders As Undergraduates Noted for College Honors)

The Division of Student Affairs Office of Student Life recognized the need to do more to encourage and acknowledge exemplary student leadership and academic achievement within the campus environment.  As a result, the division designed initiatives to build a stronger spirit of community on campus and promote the concept of service.  Discussion focused on increasing the visibility of existing opportunities to advance the concept of excellence on campus.

Establishing a senior honor society was one of several initiatives to accomplish these objectives.  The ideals, history, and traditions of Mortar Board as described in the literature and reflected in the reports from other campuses paralleled what we are trying to accomplish and reinforce among our students.  Not only do we want to recognize the most outstanding and deserving students and encourage their continued involvement and standards of excellence through a senior honor society, we wanted our students to have the benefit of being part of a more prestigious and nationally recognized honor society such as, Mortar Board, Inc.

UB has two undergraduate honor societies which base their selection solely on academic accomplishments, e.g., Phi Eta Sigma and Golden Key.  In addition, there are 28 academically related honoraries on campus and an Order of Omega chapter.  It seemed timely to introduce this type of organization on campus to promote and recognize excellence and to cultivate and award a group of outstanding students representing a broad and diverse range of disciplines, backgrounds, and experiences.

UB LAUNCH (Leaders As Undergraduate Noted for College honors) was founded July-August 1990, at the University at Buffalo.  UB, through 1967, did have two senior honor societies, Bisonhead and Cap and Gown.  As these no longer existed, it seemed appropriate to establish an organization on campus which would promote and recognize excellence and reward a group of exceptional students.  In April 1993, UB LAUNCH became one of two-hundred Mortar Board chapters.

Mortar Board functions as an honor society rather than an honorary.  The difference is that while an honorary exists solely for the purpose of honoring its members, an honor society, although composed of members who have already distinguished themselves and have been recognized for such, continues to make significant contributions to campus and community life.  Belonging to an honor society carries a commitment of individual and group participation.

Mortar Board is committed to taking a leadership role on campus.  The Emerging Leaders Forum has been an annual project which they have implemented since 1991-1992 to encourage involvement and address leadership issues within the University community.  Some of the other activities that we have been involved with include benefits for the United Way, AIDS awareness, and the Linda Yalem Safety Run.

Membership selection is based on evidence of distinguished leadership, scholarship, and service.  Candidates must be full-time undergraduate day-time students in their junior year who will be enrolled as a senior both semesters of the 2007-2008 academic year.  To be eligible, individuals must be in the upper 35 per cent of the junior class scholastically or must have attained a 3.0 GPA (minimum), whichever is higher.