Beta Kappa Chapter

Beta Kappa Chapter (Founded 13 February 1994) is located at Clemson University in Clemson, South Carolina.

Chapter History

Past Presidents

• Jennifer Yeargin-Busch (sp?) 1994-????
• Jane Sutherland
• ... Unknown ...
• Ryan Ballew (??-Spring 1998)
• R. Brian Mock (Spring 1998-Spring 1999)
• John P. McKibbin (Fall 1999-Spring 2000)
• Eric Krantz (Fall 2000-Spring 2002)
• Julie Long (Fall 2002-Spring 2003)
• Bradley Weeber (Fall 2003-Spring 2004)
• Joshua Worthington (Fall 2004-Spring 2005)
• Erica Garber (Fall 2005-Spring 2006)
• Rodney Kyle Davis (Fall 2006-Present)

Chapter Events & Activities

Founder's Weekend

Beta Kappa celebrates the Chapter's founding with a full weekend of themed activities.

• 2007 - Murder Mystery Dinner set in a 1920's Chicago Flop House. Attendees were given roles to play. Special Guest Speaker FreshBoy, BK 325, was the decedant.

Rate Your Professors Web Site

Since ca. 1996, Beta Kappa has hosted a Rate Your Professors (RYP) web site open to all Clemson University students to provide ratings and commentary about Professors and Instructors at Clemson University. The purpose of this site is stated in the opening paragraph of the site disclaimer:

"The Brothers of the Beta Kappa Chapter of Phi Sigma Pi National Honor Fraternity at Clemson University, in striving to encourage the ideal of Scholarship through the promotion of Academic Freedom regarding the unfettered exchange of ideas and information, have established the Rate Your Professor web site for the purposes of exchanging student- and faculty-generated information relating to academic instruction and enhancing the educational process at Clemson University." (Read the full disclaimer)

The original site was created by Brother T. Brian Bunton, BK 299.

Controversy

As early as a few weeks after launch, the site began to receive both positive and negative feedback from students, faculty and administrators. Initially, student ratings were posted to the site manually, and were thus reviewed by a live person. As the site grew in popularity due to periodic advertising by Beta Kappa as well as by word of mouth, postings began to come in by the hundreds, and were very quickly back-logged.

The next iteration of the RYP site attempted to deal with the volume of posting requests by an automated posting process for new ratings. Unfortunately, during this period, the site was not closely monitored by Beta Kappa, and several potentially libelous postings appeared, as well as postings containing profane language. These issues were brought to the attention of Beta Kappa Chapter by the Administration at Clemson University, in response to complaints by several faculty members that factually inaccurate information posted on the RYP site was harmful and demeaning. At this point, the site was overhauled again, and new policies were created to protect Beta Kappa's reputation.

Current Site

The current version of the RYP site requires potential posters to read and acknowledge a disclaimer, and agree to terms of posting. Only users with a valid Clemson University ID may create postings, although anyone may view postings. New ratings must be approved by Members of Beta Kappa Chapter prior to posting on the RYP site, and postings not meeting the terms set forth in the site disclaimer are ignored.

Beta Kappa is very proud of the RYP site, and runs promotional campaigns during Rush as well as at the start and end of each semester.

Notable Alumni

• FreshBoy!

Chapter Honors and Awards

National Awards

• None to date

University Awards

• 2002 Clemson University Honor Society of the Year, presented by Omicron Delta Kappa
• 2003 Clemson University Honor Society of the Year, presented by Omicron Delta Kappa

Other Awards

• None to date

Further Resources

• Beta Kappa Chapter Home Page
• BK Rate Your Professors Web Site