The Thirteen Club

Requirements

Membership in the Thirteen Club is offered to students meeting the following criteria:

  • Senior Classification
  • All academic credit taken at Southeastern
  • A cumulative grade point average of 3.2 or better
  • No final course grades below a C

The Constitution of THE THIRTEEN CLUB

Southeastern Louisiana University evolved from Hammond Junior College which was founded in 1925 to provide higher educational opportunities in this immediate area. In the first year six students had transferred credits from other institutions to make it possible to earn the state’s two-year teacher certification.

In 1928, Act. No. 136 of the State Legislature authorized Southeastern Louisiana College to award four-year degrees and admitted Southeastern to the state system of higher education. In order to provide the fledgling institution with an honor society, and to provide a lasting gift to the institution, this Depression Era class established a perpetual honor organization specifically to honor outstanding students who had taken their entire academic work at Southeastern. The original thirteen members, have been identified below:

Archie Bray – Springfield, LA

Wunzie Conerly – Kentwood, LA

Vera Cook  – Waldheim, LA

Faye Copes – Natalbany, LA

Gladys Higginbotham – Holden, LA

Adah Hinman – Hammond, LA

Stella Kinney – Hammond, LA

Florence Neal –  Hammond, LA

Doris Robertson –  Hammond, LA

Elmer Sanders – Roseland, LA

Ruth Stevens – Hammond, LA

Eleanor Turner – Roseland, LA

Mrs. Aileen Inman Ponchatoula, LA

Since the founding of THE THIRTEEN CLUB, many honor organizations have been established on our campus. Most of these are discipline centered and require certain competencies and/or academic credits for membership.

The Thirteen Club is unique to Southeastern Louisiana University. Although the honor organization is probably not recognized beyond the institution’s academic community, how pleased those 13 founders would be that their gift is still appreciated by the Southeastern family.