On May 2, 2008, Kimn Swenson Gollnick was inducted into Kappa Tau Alpha (KTA) with four other students at a special ceremony held on campus in the Hall of Fame room, Adler Journalism Building, at the University of Iowa School of Journalism and Mass Communication. She received a decorated certificate, the special blue and gold membership cordon for graduation, a membership card, a gold KTA keypin, and the KTA newsletter – Special Issue For New Initiates. Here is a passage from that newsletter:

"You have earned your membership by your exemplary scholarship. You are a member of Kappa Tau Alpha for life . . . ."

"Exemplars:

"In your induction into Kappa Tau Alpha you have pledged your allegiance to the highest ideals of journalism and communication. It was Socrates, the mentor of Plato, who insisted on the marriage of knowledge to ethics. To him we are indebted for this great conception which comes to us as a shining maxim: 'The unexamined life is not worth living.'

"To my mind the Socratic ideal of 'the examined life' synthesizes the cardinal precepts of professional journalistic practice. You have today pledged your allegiance to worthy utterance - utterance marked by the truthfulness, fairness, and artistry. To honor these standards in your own professional life – whether in reportage or commentary or advertising – will make each of you an exemplar of 'the examined life.' The greatest adventure in life is, after all, the adventure of the human intellect and the human spirit. You are to be congratulated on having proved your worthiness in this great adventure. You are, as it were, the crème de la crème of your own student population.

"And your induction into Kappa Tau Alpha writes yet another chapter in your instructors' steadfast faith in the great Socratic ideal of 'the examined life.'

"We are all of us proud of your individual achievement. You are exemplars of an honorable breed of men and women – a fraternity whose business it is, through the spoken and printed word, to make truth prevail in the world in which it moves and has its being. You are in the larger sense therefore exemplars of the great Socratic ideal of 'the examined life.'

"We salute you and wish you Godspeed."

                                                            - Ralph T. Eubanks, professor emeritus

Kappa Tau Alpha is a college honor society that recognizes academic excellence and promotes scholarship in journalism and mass communications. Membership must be earned by excellence in academic work at one of the 91 colleges and universities that have chapters. Selection for membership is a mark of highest distinction and honor.

Membership is by invitation only, and is based solely on character and excellence in academic work. Students with a compiled GPA that ranks them in the top 10 percent of their class are invited, provided they meet other stringent requirements including a minimum GPA of 3.5 and 9 credit hours of upper division work in professional journalism and mass communication courses.

Sources:
UI School of Journalism and Mass Communication (http://www.uiowa.edu/jmc/student/index.html)
Kappa Tau Alpha (http://www.kappataualpha.org/index.html)
Association of College Honor Societies (http://www.achsnatl.org/society.asp?society=kta)
Missouri School of Journalism, where KTA started (http://journalism.missouri.edu/undergraduate/kappa-tau-alpha.html)

   

Knowledge        *        Truth        *        Accuracy