Mortar Board

Mortar Board is an American national honor society for college seniors. Mortar Board has 233 chartered collegiate chapters nationwide and 15 alumni chapters.

History
Mortar Board was founded in Syracuse, New York on February 15, 1918. It was the first national honor society for college senior women and continues to promote women's interests in higher education today. The organization coalesced by agreement of four local women's honor societies. Founding locals were:
 * Der Hexenkreis, Cornell University
 * Mortar Board, Ohio State University
 * Mortarboard, University of Michigan
 * Pi Sigma Chi, Swarthmore College

These and other chapters continue the tradition of adopting unique, historical or symbolic local names as their chapter designations, and do not use traditional alphabetized Greek Letter names as are common among other honor societies.

The Society was originally unnamed. One of the predecessor locals (at OSU) had been called Mortar Board, using two separate words, and it was noted that they and the group at Swarthmore both wore pins in the shape of a mortarboard; from this, a pin representative of a mortarboard was adopted at the first national convention on 1918-02-15, and finally, the name Mortar Board was adopted at the second convention, a year later.

The Society grew quickly, adopting a district governance structure by 1923 when it had already grown to 18 chartered chapters. By 1925 the Mortar Board Quarterly was established as the official publication, now called the Forum.

The Society admitted men in 1975 as a ramification of Title IX, at which point a clause was added in the Purpose to include "to promote and advance the status of women." This was further revised the following year to read, "...to emphasize the advancement of the status of women" as well as "to promote equal opportunities among all people."

Mortar Board today has 233 chapters in 45 states.

Organization
Mortar Board, Inc. is governed by collegiate chapters. National officers come from the ranks of alumni and collegiate members.

National office
The National Office, located in Columbus, Ohio, is the source of records and information related to chapter operations, national conferences, alumni, the Mortar Board National Foundation and the historical archives of Mortar Board. The staff enacts policies and procedures established by the National Council and the Mortar Board National Foundation.

National Foundation
The National Foundation was established in 1955 as the fundraising arm of Mortar Board, as well as to serve the educational aims of Mortar Board, Inc. The mission of the National Foundation is to support Mortar Board, Inc. in furthering its ideals of scholarship, leadership and service.

Section coordinators
Section coordinators work directly with chapters, serving as close primary contacts for chapters within a specified geographic region. The section coordinator is available to assist the chapters with a variety of tasks, including planning and execution of events.

Affiliations
Mortar Board is an affiliate of the Association of College Honor Societies. Mortar Board was invited into the Association of College Honor Societies (ACHS) in 1937, the only women's honor society to be invited up until that time. ACHS is a national organization that provides resources and fosters communication among 70 honor societies with chapters around the world.

Notable members
More than quarter of a million members have been initiated nationwide. Notable alumni include:
 * Maya Angelou, poet
 * Drew Brees, former professional football player, New Orleans Saints and San Diego Chargers
 * Jimmy Carter, 39th President of the United States
 * Rudy Giuliani, 107th mayor of New York City
 * Sandra Day O'Connor, former U.S. Supreme Court associate justice
 * Bruce Littlefield, author and lifestyle expert
 * Aron Ralston, mountain climber and author
 * Judith Resnik, Challenger space shuttle astronaut
 * Condoleezza Rice, former U.S. Secretary of State
 * Sally Ride, first female U.S. astronaut
 * Fred Rogers, educator, minister, and host of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood