The advisor is the lifeline for a chapter. The advisor has to fulfill a few essential requirements if a chapter is to be sustained.
- In the beginning of each semester, the advisor needs to contact the administrative secretary of the department and request a list of the eligible candidates for that semester's initiation. The advisor should provide the membership eligibility requirements (see below) to the secretary for the proper selection of the candidates. This is essential, if the advisor is not privy to students' GPA and class standing. After receiving the list, the advisor should check and make sure that all students on the list satisfy the leadership and integrity requirements. Following that the advisor forwards the list to the chapter president for commencing the initiation process.
- The advisor needs to make sure that a new slate of chapter officers is elected every year --either near the end of the fall or the end of the spring semester-.
- If the advisor needs to find a replacement in instances when she/he is stepping down from the position or might be on sabbatical.
Failure to act on the above may actually may doom the very existence of a chapter. Chapter officers graduate and leave and within a year or two the term Pi Tau Sigma may be foreign to new eligible students. Currently, 49 out of the 179 existing chapters are dormant and it is extremely hard to re-energize them. Only an advisor is a contancy that may prevent a chapter falling into that unfortunate state. It is regrettable for an institution to fail to provide the opportunity to its deserving students to join this highly esteemed prestigious international honor society.
In addition to the above essential requirements, advisors can also be a source of encouragement and help to their chapter. Their most important contribution is achieved by their attendance in chapter initiations, elections, and meetings. Their mere presence encourages student attendance and enthusiasm. Their attendance in initiations and signing the roll-book page can also be a source of income for the chapter. Advisors also are the keepers of the roll-book.
Membership Eligibility
1. Members in this organization shall consist of three classes, namely: Undergraduate, Graduate and Honorary. Members are permanently classified upon their initiation.
2. In determining the standing of a student only credits that count towards the degree requirements in the Mechanical Engineering curriculum must be counted. Any courses transferred or taken as AP credits that are not part of the degree requirements should not be counted in determining if a student is a junior or a senior.
3. Any transferred student, in addition to the rest of the eligibility requirement, needs to:
- Complete 16 graded credits towards the degree requirement in the university they transferred to.
- Have a minimum of 30 graded credits (transferred + taken in the department) towards the degree requirement.
In determining the junior/senior standing for transferred students, all credits towards the degree requirement (transferred+ taken in the department), graded or not, will be counted. The GPA eligibility will be based on all graded credits towards the degree requirements.
4. Undergraduate members shall be chosen from students on a basis of sound engineering ability, scholarship service, leadership, and integrity. Members shall be selected from eligible candidates currently in the last two years of their mechanical engineering program.
5. To be considered for election to undergraduate membership, a student's scholastic ranking must lie in the upper twenty-fifth (25) percentile of the student's respective classification with a grade point average greater than or equal to 3.25/4.0.
* Let’s say your mechanical engineering department requires ME students to complete certain 128 credits to graduate with a BS degree in ME. That corresponds to 16 credits per semester. Thus, a student that has completed 64 credits is considered a first semester junior and is eligible. A student that has completed 112 credits is considered a second semester senior and is not eligible. All these credits need to be from required courses in the ME curriculum’s 128 credits.
6. A last term senior who is in the upper twenty-fifth (25) percentile of the seniors’ class, with a grade point average greater than or equal to 3.25/4.0, and who is deemed worthy, may be initiated only upon permission of the Board of Directors. Requests for this permission, stating the circumstances for justifying membership, shall be signed by the chapter president and chapter advisor, and shall be sent to the Board of Directors Secretary-Treasurer for approval. Here is some help before you consider submitting a request for exception. If the student was invited to join in previous semesters and chose not to do so, this would exclude him/her for consideration. If the student was not eligible to join as a junior but became eligible in his/her first semester senior and either the chapter failed to hold an initiation that semester, or the student was studying abroad then a petition should be submitted.
7. Graduate members shall be chosen on a basis of sound engineering ability, scholarship service, leadership, and integrity. Graduate members shall be selected from students having already completed an accredited undergraduate degree program in mechanical engineering and are currently enrolled in a master’s or doctoral degree in mechanical engineering. Master’s degree candidates shall have completed one academic term of residency, while doctoral degree candidates shall have completed one academic year of residency, rank in the top 35% standing of all graduate student candidates in the mechanical engineering program, and have a minimum GPA of 3.5/4.0. Eligible graduate members on the term that will be graduating, may be initiated only upon permission of the Board of Directors. Requests for this permission, stating the circumstances justifying membership, shall be signed by the chapter president and chapter advisor, and shall be sent to the Board of Directors Secretary-Treasurer for approval. Inducted graduate students shall be members of the chapter that they were initiated in. The maximum number of graduate students in a chapter may not exceed 25% of the total undergraduate members of the chapter.
8. Active graduate members are allowed to vote or hold office unless local chapter bylaws do not permit it.
9. Honorary members shall be selected on the basis of successful achievements in the profession of mechanical engineering. Practicing engineers and full, associate, or assistant professors of mechanical engineering are eligible. Each chapter may up to four honorary members per year. Two of these shall be exempt from payment of the registration fee. A statement of justification for the honorary candidates need to be communicated via an email to the Secretary-Treasurer for approval by the BoD, before the induction ceremony.
10. Honorary members shall not be allowed to vote or hold office.
11. An undergraduate or graduate member who fails to graduate from the mechanical engineering program will forfeit their membership status.
Please note that chapter advisors are responsible for the selection of both undergraduate and graduate candidates. The chapter then votes for approval of the candidates to membership and sends letters of invitation.
Please remember that all student initiates and honorary members need to attend the induction ceremony, and that the inductees are not Pi Tau Sigma members until the registration of the initiation is processed by the national office.
