By Heather Monahan
Staff Writer
“Sincerity, truth and design.”
Sigma Tau Delta, the international English honor society, lives by this motto. This semester, a group of St. Bonaventure students will start following this motto as well.
Theta Rho, the Bonaventure chapter of Sigma Tau Delta, founded in the 1980s ceased to exist by the end of that same decade. Lauren Matz, associate professor of English, began teaching at Bonaventure in 1988 and said the society was not an organization on campus at that time.
However, this semester, Patrick Panzarella, chair of the English department, made moves to reopen the society at Bonaventure.
Matz and Tracy Schrems, an English lecturer, both members of Sigma Tau Delta themselves, are co-sponsors of the Theta Rho chapter. Both have been working this semester to bring the society back to Bonaventure.
“He (Panzarella) asked if we would work on reactivating the chapter,” said Matz.
Sigma Tau Delta, which has more than 800 chapters internationally and was originally founded in 1924, accepts both undergraduate and graduate students who major or minor in English.
Undergraduate students must have completed 60 credit hours and have at least a 3.0 overall GPA, as well as a 3.0 or higher average in all English courses. Graduate students must have at least a 3.3 GPA.
The international society holds conferences for undergraduates, graduates and faculty to attend once a year, just one of the benefits of being a member of the society.
Schrems said another benefit is the society provides graduate members with a chance to get their research out. With a scholarly journal and a creative journal published once a year, members are able to present their work in a professional light.
After its lapse more than 20 years ago, Bonaventure is having its “inaugural” induction ceremony this Wednesday.
“As of press time, there were 24 undergraduate and graduate English majors and minors who are going to be honored with induction,” Matz said.
The co-sponsors know because this year is the first induction at Bonaventure in quite some time, it will be a much larger group than future years.
“I think it’s great we have this chapter reactivated,” Matz said.
While there are a lot of clubs and activities on campus devoted to literature, Sigma Tau Delta gives students the opportunity to learn about and work with the English language in many different writing formats and techniques.
While the students being inducted pay for their individual dues, Matz and Schrems both gave credit to the English department and the School of Arts and Sciences, which is helping with other costs associated with reactivating.
However, Matz said it will be up to the new inductees to create the future of the Theta Rho chapter of the society.
“Students will be able to shape this group however they want to,” she said.
monahahm10@bonaventure.edu
