History

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History of AGS 

Alpha Gamma Sigma Before 1940
Alpha Gamma Sigma 1940-1950
Alpha Gamma Sigma 1950-1973
Alpha Gamma Sigma 1973-Present

 

 Thinker

Alpha Gamma Sigma Before 1940

Dr. William T. Boyce was,  in 1925,  Head Administrator of Fullerton Junior  College.    He  is  chiefly  responsible  for  the formation  of  the  California  Junior  College  Honor  Society  that eventually became the Alpha Gamma Sigma we know today.

In  1925, he conceived  the  idea  of  promoting  a statewide junior college honor scholarship society. He saw in it an intellectual stimulus, comparable to that  of  Phi  Beta  Kappa  in  the  higher  colleges.

Superintendent Louis E. Plummer supported the idea. With his backing, Merton Hill, Chaffey Junior College administrator,  and Dr. K. Hammond, Santa Ana Junior College administrator,   joined in a consideration of the proposal. Emphasis was placed on the specific advantages in the plan as follows:
It would be an incentive to study and strive for scholastic honor.
It would be an inter-junior college enterprise in scholastic achievement.
It would commend the junior colleges to the higher educational institutions.
It would add  luster to  commencement  exercises  to recognize the graduating students who had qualified for membership.

The proposal was heartily endorsed, and Dr. Boyce was asked to formulate the plan and present  it  for  adoption by all  the  junior  colleges  in California. The response was approval, adoption, and the formation of chapters.

According to Dr. Boyce, the original constitution of the society was adopted in 1926. Those members and advisors who attended the Alpha Gamma Sigma Spring Convention at Asilomar in April 1986, can tell you that the sixtieth anniversary of the founding of AGS was  grandly celebrated.

At the Principals' Convention in May 1926,  a special committee was appointed consisting of Dr. Albert M. Williams (Fullerton), chairman, Miss Kathleen D. Loly  (Pasadena),  Miss Belle Collidge,  Mr. W.  W. Mather, and Mr. C. S. Morris. The committee was given full authority to select the design for the pin, to have the pin made, and to call meetings of the Advisory Board.

The Advisory Board was to consist of the faculty advisors of the local honor societies that had met the minimum requirements provided for by the constitution and had been formally notified to that effect by the committee.

During  the  first  year,  chapters  were  established  at  Bakersfield, Chaffey,  Fullerton,  Pasadena,  Santa  Ana,  Santa  Maria,  and  San Bernardino.  The next year brought in Citrus,  Sacramento,  Compton, Glendale, Long Beach, Taft, and Pomona.

These fifteen chapters were invited to send representatives to the first  meeting  of  the  Advisory  Board  on  November  24,  1928,  in Pasadena. Sacramento withdrew, and the other fourteen chapters were represented  at  the  first  Spring  Convention  of  the  society which (judging  from  the  date  on  the  printed  program  of  the  second convention) has to have been held in 1931.

At first, the pin was a flat, onepiece gold pin with an open book and a blazing torch on a shield with the word "California" across the top, the words "Honor Society" across the book, and the letters ``JC" at the bottom.

A request came from the students that a Greek letter name be adopted instead  of  the  cumbersome  name  "California  Junior  College  Honor Scholarship Society." 

Accordingly, in 1932 a committee consisting of Dr. Grace Baumgartner, Miss Kathleen Loly,  and Dr. Albert Williams selected the motto:
 
"Add to good character, knowledge and judgment."

They took the three Greek words ``Arete",  ``Gnosis",  and ``Sophrosyne" as embodying  the  meaning  of  the  motto,  and  then  chose  the  initial letters of those three words, Alpha Gamma Sigma, as the name of the society.  The design of the pin was  changed to  include  the Greek letters.

At the second Spring Convention at San Bernardino on April 2,  1932, chapter  names  were  drawn  by  lot;  and  Pasadena,  much  to  their satisfaction,  drew  the  coveted  Alpha slip.  Since  that  time  the society has undergone a number of changes.

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Alpha Gamma Sigma 1940-1950

In 194O, Alpha Gamma Sigma became incorporated under California law. The Articles of Incorporation give the official name of the society as: 

"Alpha Gamma Sigma,  The California Junior College Honor Society."

The purposes of the organization are stated in the Articles of Incorporation as follows:
To promote,  recognize,  encourage,  and foster scholarship and educational attainments among students of the junior colleges of the State of California;
To recognize students attaining high scholastic records;
To make students more conscious of the advantages of high scholarship;
To  bring  together  students  attaining  high  scholastic records for their mutual benefit.


From the copy of the Spring Convention program printed in the 1941 edition of The Torchbearer of Alpha Gamma Sigma,  it is clear that student members were present and active at the 1941 Convention at Reedley  Junior  College.   World  War  II  seems  to  have  halted  such student participation, for the minutes of the Advisory Board meeting at the State Convention of 1954 state that "this is the first state Alpha Gamma Sigma Convention since the war in which students were invited to participate.

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Alpha Gamma Sigma 1950-1973

The  1950  revision of  the AGS  Constitution had  given  the  student members the authority to form their own organization.   Nothing was done about this until the chapter advisors of the colleges in the southern part of the state invited students to attend the Southern Regional Conference at Santa Monica City College on December S, 1953.

There  it  was  decided  to  divide  the  state  into  three  regions ~ Southern, Central, and Northern  and to invite members from the other two regions to attend the Spring Convention to formulate a set of bylaws  for the proposed Student organization.  The  amount  of  time available  at  the  convention  did  not  allow  completion  of  the organization at that time, but the task did get finished and the new bylaws were ratified by the Advisory Board in time for implementation at the following Spring Convention.  Note that the ratification of the Bylaws for the Student organization was done by the advisors!

The 1950 revision of the AGS Constitution was amended in 1958, 1966, 1967, 1968, and 1969.  Each amendment resulted in giving the students more authority and responsibility in running AGS.  By 1972  it had become evident that what was really needed was a complete revision of the Constitution. Under the advisorship of William Miller, Advisor of the  Diablo  Valley  Chapter,   a  group  of   students   formed  a constitutional revision committee.  By February 1973,  they had met several times and finally had a new constitution ready to present to the membership at  the  1973  Spring Convention on Catalina  Island.  There the new constitution was ratified BY THE STUDENTS.

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Alpha Gamma Sigma 1973 - Present

The 1973 revision was a good constitution,  but it provided for a grouping of chapters into "areas" of five to ten schools.   Although this structure looked great on paper, it soon proved to be unworkable.  The inability to do everything as the constitution said it should be done was a source of guilt feelings on the part of the older advisors and outright confusion on the part of new ones.  No one on  the  Advisory  Board  objected  when  it  was  moved  to  form  a constitution revision committee made up of advisors.  The framers of the 1973 revision had long since gone elsewhere,  and the  student members of 198384 did not know about the newest revision until they were asked to approve it. This they did at the State Convention at Asilomar in 1984.

Although  the  society had  been  functioning  under  a  "constitution" since 1925,  and although the revisions of 195O and 1973 were both called  "constitutions,"  the Advisory Board  committee  appointed  to draw up the 1984 revision decided that "the Constitution" was really the  194O Articles of  Incorporation.   The  document  under  revision should more properly be called the  "Bylaws of Alpha Gamma Sigma, Incorporated."  As late as  1987,  some of the older members of the Advisory  Board  were  still  referring  to  the  "Bylaws"  as  the Constitution .

The 1984 Bylaws of Alpha Gamma Sigma. Inc.  were designed to provide a feasible structure for the efficient functioning of the organization. Each chapter has its own set of bylaws that coordinate with those of the state organization in terms  of name,  purpose,  and membership eligibility regulations.

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