COLUMN: Honor, bought and sold

From Alan Lowinger's, "The Rest of the Story," Fall '00 From Alan Lowinger's, "The Rest of the Story," Fall '00There was a whole lotta rZsumZ paddin' going on last Thursday night. That evening, entering a near-capacity crowd in Irvine Auditorium, I could not believe my eyes: Hundreds of students were dressed up in snazzy suits and fancy cocktail dresses. Many were accompanied by their parents and grandparents. I, personally, had come straight from class with wrinkled clothes and a backpack, and these people seemed ready for a wedding. The ceremony was orchestrated by the Golden Key National Honor Society in recognition of the University's best and brightest. Juniors and seniors with the highest GPAs received congratulatory letters weeks earlier announcing that, on account of their demonstrated academic excellence, they would be allowed exclusive entrance into Golden Key. Membership, with its privileges, also had a price. Sixty dollars covered the costs of a "lifetime" membership in the society and an official framable certificate "in recognition of outstanding scholastic achievement and excellence." That scene, that night, was one filled with important speakers and of parents taking picture after picture of their children. Six hundred twenty-four students, called up one at a time, were inducted that night. Contrast that with last night's attendance at the first Golden Key meeting. Fifteen new members showed up and, if I did my math right, 97.6 percent of Golden Key's newest inductees were absent. There was not a flashy suit or a distant relative in sight. In a small room in Steinberg-Dietrich Hall, 15 new members and four current board members gathered to fill nine board positions. This latter scene confirmed my initial suspicion -- that with Golden Key, apparently, there's less than meets the eye. Where was the pride in Golden Key that hundreds of students felt only four days earlier? Most likely, it evaporated as soon as fellow inductees updated their resumes to reflect this latest honor. In essence, just about every student that night left with a $60 piece of paper. Many students who paid for this recognition, myself included, were out to add another impressive distinction to their long lists of accomplishments. Did any of these distinguished students really care about Golden Key's dedication to community service and student-teacher interaction? Apparently not. Instead, more than 600 people sold out. They put down their money, picked up an accolade and left Irvine content with their accomplishments. The catch here was that there was no catch. Golden Key has created a product that is too tempting for many students to resist. Golden Key makes it simple to add another highlight to a resume; unlike other honor societies, nothing other than your grade point average matters. You don't have to do anything honorable -- no leadership positions, no community service, no snazzy internships. Not even an essay. Just grades and a checkbook. And you're in. Personally, after weeks of debate, I caved in and sent in the necessary fee -- more likely than not, I did not want to miss out on a great opportunity to show my academic worth. And as hundreds like myself flexed their academic muscle that night in Irvine, perhaps the last laugh was on us. According to Steve Pracht, director of alumni relations at Golden Key, 1,155 of approximately 5,000 juniors and seniors were sent congratulatory letters of acceptance into Golden Key, pending arrival of payment. Each student was told that he or she was in the top 15 percent of his or her class. Never mind that this letter was sent to a full 23 percent of Penn's juniors and seniors. Pracht explained that fact to random fluctuations in academic achievement. Every student with a 3.6 or higher is sent acceptance letters into Golden Key and, most years, that comes out to about 15 percent. In Pracht's words, "Golden Key uses a flat GPA, so the actual percentage can be higher or lower than 15 percent." Apparently, it can be much higher. The president of Penn's chapter of Golden Key, Tony D'Emidio, attributes the error to a computer glitch. He adds that the 1,155 did not include the 100 to 150 seniors already inducted last year. Apparently, the actual percentage can be much, much higher. But Golden Key is not entirely to blame. The beauty of the relationship is that many students are happy to pay for the impressive-sounding recognition that Golden Key provides. The society, meanwhile, is happy to add as many qualified (and paying) students as possible to its database. Students who paid for membership in Golden Key may not have been told the whole truth. Nonetheless, as Penn Student Life Director Fran Walker -- Golden Key's faculty advisor on campus -- said, "No one stood over you with a stick forcing you to shell out the $60." But like many others, I got what I paid for -- a name. And for better or for worse, I'll milk that name for all it's worth.