2 weeks Ago By Michael Milliorn
The Phi Theta Kappa International Collegiate Honor Society (PTK) is an organization designed to recognize the academic excellence of students attending associate degree-granting colleges. The honor society is a prestigious recognition, distinguishing members as top-level scholars in their schools and communities, according to the Phi Theta Kappa website. For over 10 years, concerns regarding PTK and its operations have been raised.
Toni Marek, former PTK international officer and Victoria College student, is set to release a book detailing the organization’s governance, recruitment messaging and financial decision-making concerns. Saving PTK: The Whistleblower’s Fight for Truth and Change is a public-interest publication outlining various concerns regarding PTK. Developed from publicly available data and firsthand accounts, the book will examine membership and scholarship messaging, financial oversight and leadership and perspectives from former employees.
The book will be available for free on Amazon.com beginning April 3. “ Phi Theta Kappa , at a community college level, is transformational and it is needed,” Marek said.
“The advisors are unsung heroes because they’re not paid. They’re volunteers. They do amazing things, and they do really good work.
The point of what I’m doing is to try to save Phi Theta Kappa.” The book features information from at least 10 former PTK employees who worked with the organization as recently as a few months ago, Marek said. Marek became involved with the honor society over 10 years ago.
She left the organization in 2014 following a claim of sexual harassment she made against PTK’s executive director at the time. Marek was selected as one of five international officers for the honor society. The selection was a testament to her involvement as only five members are selected each year for this role out of the millions of PTK members, Marek said.
“This was the pinnacle,” Marek said. “You didn’t get any higher than this. I was going to get a full-ride scholarship to basically anywhere, because that’s what happened to previous international officers.
” Saving PTK: The Whistleblower’s Fight for Truth and Change addresses publicly available data indicating the organization offers more memberships and less scholarship funds than it advertises, according to the book’s news release. The book covers the organization’s major decline in net income from 2021 to 2023, dropping from a $4.7 million surplus to a $900,000 deficit.
The book will feature personal accounts from individuals familiar with the honor society and its internal culture, the news release read. Accounts from a former PTK executive on leadership communication, a former membership service team member on the organization’s eligibility criteria and a former marketing professional on how recruitment messaging has evolved will be included in the book. In an effort to encourage transparency, Marek launched a petition on Change.
org addressing the concerns she has raised regarding PTK. The petition has 17,010 verified signatures at the time of article publication. “This book and petition aim to bring attention to concerns that students and employees have raised,” Marek said in the press release.
“It is intended to promote transparency and open discussion about nonprofit governance and recruitment practices.” Saving PTK: The Whistleblower’s Fight for Truth and Change does not allege wrongdoing on the part of PTK. It does not claim to represent the organization’s official policies or operations.
The public-interest publication reflects the good faith opinions of Marek and those who contributed firsthand accounts. All information found in the book is based on these accounts and public-available data. The book is not endorsed by Phi Theta Kappa.
“When I told my story, it didn’t do anything,” Marek said. “The sad thing is no one cared about what happened to me or other people that came forward. But when I started talking about the money, that’s when people cared.
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