Loyola College’s Department of Writing has announced the formation of a new national honor society for Writing majors. Pi Epsilon Pi (Latin for the organization’s motto “petens eloquentiam perfectam” or “seeking perfect eloquence”) is the first national honor society for undergraduate writing majors in the country, according to Dr. Peggy O’Neill, director of Loyola’s First Year Writing Program. Junior and senior writing majors are eligible for membership in Pi Epsilon Pi based on both their academic accomplishments as writing majors and for their leadership as role models.“We felt it critically important that students in the field of Writing receive recognition for their outstanding work and leadership,” said Dr. Ron Tanner, chair of Loyola’s Writing Department. “Pi Epsilon Pi will give these highly-motivated writers more opportunities to develop not only as young professionals, but also as citizens who hope to make a difference in their community.”

News of the new national honor society is drawing praise from specialists in writing education from around the country. David Fenza, Executive Director of the Association of Writer’s & Writing Programs said, “Since writing is one of the most important and popular academic disciplines in the arts and humanities, it’s wonderful, and perhaps overdue to have a society to honor the most accomplished student writers.” Dr. Shirley K. Rose, president of the Council of Writing Program Administrators and professor of English at Purdue University, said “To do our best work as writers, many of us need recognition by others and community with fellow writers—Pi Epsilon Pi will offer its members both.” According to Dr. Lisa Lebduska, director of College Writing and associate professor of English at Wheaton College, the new honor society offers the next generation of young writers the opportunity to challenge some difficult disciplinary divides within the traditional domain of the humanities. “Pi Epsilon Pi is writing studies at its best—collaborative, interdisciplinary, generative,” said Lebduska. Loyola College in Maryland is a Jesuit comprehensive university founded in 1852.