Pi Sigma Alpha - Membership

Membership

There are three classes of membership in Pi Sigma Alpha: student, faculty, and honorary. Student membership is open to juniors, seniors and graduate students currently enrolled in institutions where the chapters are located, who meet the following qualifications:

• For undergraduates, completion of ten semester-credits or fifteen quarter-credits in political science, including at least one upper-division course, with an average grade of B or higher in all political science courses, and an overall GPA placing the student in the top one-third of his or her class. Individual chapters may raise the eligibility threshold; they may not lower it.
• For graduate students, completion of nine graduate credits in political science with no grade lower than a B in those courses.

Faculty in political science departments where chapters are located are automatically eligible for membership in the honor society. Honorary membership is intended for persons of recognized ability and achievement in the field of political science. No more than two such honorary members may be elected by a local chapter in any one year. Election to membership may be based solely on stated criteria and is irrespective of membership in an affiliation with any other organization or group. Chapters may not discriminate on any basis prohibited by law. Membership, once conferred, is for life.

The lifetime national membership fee is $35.00. Individual chapters often collect additional money from each initiate to use for their own chapter programs. The initiation fee is the only payment members ever make to the national office of the honor society. There are no annual dues.