|
About us
The College Chapters
They are the primary purpose for which HKN exists. Chapters are established upon petition request from the institution, which must have an ABET accreditation for their Electrical Engineering and/or Computer Engineering curricula. The Chapters each report directly to the National Activity, normally through the Executive Director's office, but also to their Regional Director.
The typical mission of a college chapter is the following: HKN college chapters are often asked to help their department, college, or community, or do so without invitation by virtue of the HKN guiding principles. A comprehensive list of candidate chapter activities can be found in Section VI of the
"Faculty Advisors Reference Guideline" that may be downloaded from the HKN national Website,
http://www.hkn.org/.
Other than their number, the college chapters are unchanged in their operation over the years. From the beginning college chapters have been governed by the national Constitution and Bylaws, and College Chapter Bylaws.
The only real change regarding college chapters is their sheer number. As would be expected, the initial growth was slow, but it really took off following WW II, and has tapered off in recent years. Here is the profile: By 1920 there were 13 chapters chartered; 1940, 33; 1960, 75; 1975, 134; 2004, 210 chapters chartered.
Total today is 210 college chapters chartered. Of that number, there are about 160 college chapters that are active. A few chapters have disappeared because their university or college has closed, or is no longer teaching Electrical or Computer Engineering (such as Pratt Institute in New York City). Several chapters became inactive because ECE enrollment dropped significantly through the 1990's and there were too few students to maintain their chapter, and cultural changes have occurred that have made honor societies less
"cool" and attractive to students than in years past - but those chapters are now returning. The annual new membership in HKN peaked in Academic Year (AY) 1988-1989 at 5,308, drifting to a low of 2,634 in AY 1998-1999, and has been growing nicely since.
In spite of these matters over which we have no control, Eta Kappa Nu as an organization is better organized, has better leadership, and is doing more things better than ever before!!
(Info taken from http://www.hkn.org/)
|
