Beyond Honor: Sigma Xi Takes On Task Of Finding New Home, Broader Mission

University of Alaska marine scientist. John Kelley can hardly contain his enthusiasm as he talks about the current activities and potential of Sigma Xi, the scientific research honor society, to promote science. The branch—or “club”—of the society that he has led in the city of Fairbanks for the last two years sponsors college scholarships, awards for teaching excellence, student science fairs, and field place- ments for budding researchers in the 49th state. Last month it held a symposium on the undergraduate experience that featured, among others, a speech by the chancellor of the state university system. “Whatever we do as researchers,” says Kelley, “we can also serve as role models for raising the public’s scientific literacy and encouraging students to pursue careers in science. And that’s just one of many things that Sigma Xi can do.” Harvard physiologist Peter Valberg is also president of a Sigma Xi university chapter. But his group hasn’t even met this year to elect new officers, much less to induct new members or sponsor any programs. “I got the job by default,” says Valberg, whose office is situated at the university’s medical campus in downtown Boston. “I’d like to convince someone at Cambridge, where the graduate school is located, to take the job, because they’d be closer to prospective members. But the basic problem is that there is so much going on already in the area that we haven’t felt the need for additional activities. Nobody has the time.” The contrast between the quiescence at Harvard and the exuberance in Fairbanks is part of the dilemma that confronts the 100,000-member Sigma Xi as it searches for a new identity. “We have not resolved a really important role for the organization,” declares a recent internal report outlining the problems and opportunities facing the 103-year-old society. But top officials, in a series of interviews, make it clear that they want to raise the society’s traditionally low profile by turning it into a national bellwether for the research community. And they hope to transform its 500 local chapters and clubs into a grass-roots network to shape public attitudes on scientific issues. Accompanying the society’s plans is a sense of urgency. An aging and declining membership, combined with an inability to recruit new members at many of the nation’s major research universities, has caused considerable concern among top officials. Many believe that Sigma Xi, founded in 1886 at Cornell University, must move beyond its motto of acting as “companions in zealous research” to successive generations of fledgling scientists if it hopes to survive into the next century. “Being an honor society isn’t enough anymore,” says its immediate past president, geologist Thomas Malone. “In 1886 there was a need to enhance the prestige of scientific research. But that need is much less pronounced today. The next generation of Nobel laureates is less likely to have been elected to Sigma Xi then in the past.” Sigma Xi officials yearn for a society that can occupy a prominent place in worldwide efforts to enlist technology in battling myriad pressing problems. “I hope that Sigma Xi can gather the international scientific community to address the important issues of our time,” says Malone. “We won’t be. proposing policies, but we’d like to be able to put in place the knowledge base that undergirds such policies.” At the top of the list, in Malone’s view, are such issues as global warming, improved science education, and making the United States’ economy more competitive internationally. Malone and others are beginning to translate that vision into action. In June the society decided to sell its headquarters building in New Haven and move to Research Triangle Park in North Carolina. The move, to be. completed by next summer, will effectively loosen the society’s 50-year ties with Yale University. It is also expected to result in a major shake-up at the society’s bimonthly magazine, American Scientist, which has a board of editors dominated by Yale faculty. The society has also hired a new executive director, its third in two years. He’s theoretical physicist John Aheame, whose 20-year career in Washington includes a stint at the Pentagon, a term on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and five years with Resources for the Future, a nonprofit research institute. Ahearne arrives next month with the task of calming some very troubled internal waters. He succeeds Edward Poziomek, a chemist who returned to government service after only one year at the helm, and Ian Jackson, an atmospheric chemist who was forced out in 1987 after an administrative fight over control of the magazine. Moreover, fewer than half of the society’s 40 employees are expected to make the move to North Carolina, meaning a drastic overhaul at all staffing levels. The society’s board of directors took note of this unprecedented turmoil by passing a resolution in April that expressed its “regret for the exceptional burdens currently carried by the staff,” not only the uncertainty surrounding the upcoming move, but also the “unfilled positions at headquarters and the increasing pressures from members of the board to reshape existing programs and initiate new programs.” Those goals are spelled out most clearly in an internal report, entitled “Blueprint for Greatness,” that was adopted last spring. The report is a surprisingly frank appraisal of the society’s most pressing ills, along with a detailed prescription for recovery and long-term health. Among the weaknesses cited by the report, are a decline of almost 12,000, members in the past seven years, a 70% drop over the same period in the number of new full members elected by chapters at major research universities, an overdependence on membership dues (raised this year from $25 to $30) to fund current programs, and “little knowledge of what excites or motivates” members to become involved in the society. The report also notes that poor communications and a large number of inactive chapters. mean that “the society cannot actually deliver on its claim to reach into local communities.” That last statement is particularly troubling for an organization that prides itself on its unique network of chapters and clubs. Officials repeatedly point to that structure when asked how Sigma Xi can distinguish itself from other interdisciplinary scientific societies, such as the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Academy of Sciences, as it tries to focus attention on critical issues of the day. Notes Harvard’s

Beyond Honor: Sigma Xi Takes On Task Of Finding New Home, Broader Mission

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of