The Gamma Beta Phi Society at SIUC

The Gamma Beta Phi Society is an honor and service organization for students in colleges and universities in the United States. It is non-secret, non-profit, and co-educational. Membership in the Gamma Beta Phi Society does not exclude a student from membership in any other organization.

A chapter of the Society may be established in any two-year or four-year academic institution identified by the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers in their handbook for acceptance of academic credit as offering academic credit acceptable for transfer to other two-year and four-year academic institutions.

The name of the organization is derived from the initial letters of the three Greek words for education (gnosis), life (bios), and friendship (philios). It signifies that education and friendship constitute the basis of a full and happy life. The motto of Gamma Beta Phi is "Progressus per Eruditioneum" (progress through education), and its watchwords are Scholarship, Service and Character.

Gamma Beta Phi was instituted on March 22, 1964, by a group of college educators. It was chartered as a non-profit educational organization under the laws of South Carolina on April 27, 1964. It was granted a complete tax-exempt status by the U.S. Treasury on May 6, 1966.