When Kevin Cavallin transferred to Iowa State University, from Iowa Wesleyan College, he was surprised to find that there was not an honor society specifically for biology and related majors at ISU.

That’s why he is trying to start a chapter of the Beta Beta Beta (Tri-Beta) Biology Honor Society at Iowa State.

Cavallin, who has a biology degree and is attending Iowa State to get his teaching license, wants to start a chapter of the honor society to benefit undergraduate students in nine biological science majors which Cavallin said he thinks are not adequately represented by existing honor societies at ISU.

The majors are animal ecology, biochemistry, biology, biophysics, botany, entomology, genetics, microbiology and zoology.

The Tri-Beta Honor Society is targeted at undergraduate education, and only undergraduate students can be active members.

The society requires that a student be an undergraduate major in the biological sciences, have at least a 3.0 GPA in their biology courses, be in good academic standing and have completed three term courses in the biological sciences to be a regular member.

Students can be accepted as associate members if they do not meet all of the requirements.

“We would also like students to be active either on campus or in the community,” Cavallin said.

Cavallin said he has seen students get involved in things like judging high school science fairs and assisting with blood drives.

Tri-Beta is affiliated with the American Association for the Advancement of Science and publishes a magazine called BIOS, which is unique in being one of the only magazines that publishes undergraduate research work, Cavallin said. Member students go through the process of preparing manuscripts for review, getting their work accepted (or rejected), and hopefully being published.

The journal is indexed by several abstract services at colleges and universities world-wide, giving publicity to student work, Cavallin said.

The scientific journal covers a variety of topics, including current research in the biological sciences, developments in biology, biology as a profession and information on graduate and professional training for biologists, Cavallin said.

“Tri-Beta also holds district conventions every year, and they hold national conventions every other year,” Cavallin said. “This offers members a chance to report their research, to hear from graduates and professors who give lectures and hold informational discussions, and for students and faculty from all over the country to get to meet and know each other.”

The district director of Tri-Beta, Dr. William Heidcamp, will be at ISU today to meet with faculty advisers and the officers of the ISU chapter to gauge student and faculty interest in having the honor society at ISU, Cavallin said.

Heidcamp will write a formal report for the national office of the honor society, indicating whether a Tri-Beta chapter could survive at Iowa State, Cavallin said.

Survival is based on student interest, departmental support for the organization, and the level of research activity.

After the district director approves an ISU chapter, regional chapters of the society will vote on whether to make ISU a member school.

“Then we will be formally initiated,” Cavallin said.

To start a chapter of Tri-Beta at ISU, Cavallin said the first thing he did was meet with some professors in the biological sciences beginning in December of last year. Through these meetings, he determined that there was faculty and student interest in having a chapter of Tri-Beta at ISU.

Cavallin said he and two other students, Sarah Daniels and David Wohlford, prepared a constitution and applied to the national organization to start an Iowa State chapter.

“You have to meet the requirements of the national organization and also meet the requirements for an organization at this university,” Cavallin said. “For a student organization to work efficiently, you have to be able to set down some guidelines and rules.”

Interested students were then invited to an organizational meeting where students were told what the organization was about and its requirements and goals.

Cavallin said he is waiting to be recognized by Iowa State as an honor society.

“This is so that involvement will go on an individual’s transcript,” he said, but membership in the society is a good resume builder, Cavallin said.

But it is also a way to meet and network with other faculty and students affiliated with the organization.

Cavallin said if all goes well, Tri-Beta will probably have its first initiation of students in January or February 1998.

Tri-Beta holds meetings in the Gold Room of the Memorial Union on the first Wednesday of every month at 8 p.m. Students can show their support by attending, Cavallin said.

“I feel this honor society has a lot of potential on this campus,” Cavallin said.