Psi Chi
In May of 1998, Western State College was granted a charter to Psi Chi, the national honor society in psychology. Membership in Psi Chi is accomplished through an application process and is based on academic success, coursework in psychology, all-campus activities and possession of a 'fine and upstanding character'.
Currently, Psi Chi functions as a subgroup of the psychology club, although members of Psi Chi do not have to be participants in psychology club or vice versa.
Students who apply to and are accepted to Psi Chi pay once for a lifetime membership; at present there are no chapter dues. Scholarships are available to individuals for whom the $25 membership fee creates financial hardship. For more information, email PsiChi@western.edu, and chapter officers will respond to your queries.
Psychology Club
The Psychology Club at Western State College was created so that students of psychology and interested others can participate in discourse and activities that are psychological in nature. Psychology club serves both social and educational functions, and our activities are designed to accomplish both functions.
Membership
You do not have to have a major or minor in psychology to participate in the psychology club. We invite anyone to join, as we encourage diverseness of opinion and perspective. (However, you must be an enrolled WSC student to benefit from club funds received through the WSC Student Government Association. Non-enrolled individuals are welcome to participate in psychology club activities but would have to furnish their own funding, if any activity necessitated funding as such.)
Activities
Recent activities include attendance and participation by 15-20 students at the Rocky Mountain Regional Psychology Conferences Ft. Collins, CO and Albuquerque, NM.
Psychology Club students also organized two recent blood drives on campus, worked on the Oxfam Hunger Project, and volunteered at the Gunnison Habitat for Humanity house.
Various speakers have been sponsored by the psychology club, and workshops on internship and graduate school are offered under the auspices of the psychology club.
14 students were involved in designing and carrying out a research project on attitudes toward capital punishment in cases where the defendant had been diagnosed with cognitive impairment. The students collected data in the winter of 2000 with submission for publication shortly thereafter.
For more information, contact Suzy Coykendall, Faculty Advisor @ 970 943-2645, 109 Crawford Hall, Western State College of Colorado, Gunnison, CO 81231, or scoykendall@western.edu.