Three at UNC Earn Awards for Advancement of Women

Posted on April 3, 2006

The University has honored a teacher, a student and a staff member with the first University Awards for the Advancement of Women. The recipients were selected for their commitment to promoting the status of women at Carolina.

The awards, presented March 28 during the University’s ninth annual Women’s Week, were created to replace the Cornelia Phillips Spencer Bell Award, which was retired in 2004 following controversy over the racist attitudes of the award’s namesake.

Unlike the Spencer Bell Award, which honored one woman annually for outstanding service to the University, the new awards will be presented to three people annually and may be given to men.

The recipients were selected based on their contributions to elevating the status of women on campus, improving campus policies affecting women, advancing the recruitment, retention and upward mobility of women, or assisting with career or academic mentoring for women.

The faculty award was given to Jan M. Boxill, a senior lecturer and associate department chair in philosophy. Boxill is the director of the Parr Center for Ethics and also provides radio commentary as the “voice” of Carolina women’s basketball team.

Terri C. Houston received the staff award. Houston is the director of recruitment and multicultural programs in the Office of Multicultural Affairs.

The award for undergraduate, graduate or postdoctoral students went to Matthew B. Ezzell, a graduate student and assistant to the director of undergraduate students in the sociology department.

The faculty and staff award winners each received a check for $5,000, and the student award winner received $2,500. Chancellor James Moeser presented each recipient with a framed certificate.

“The University Awards for the Advancement of Women are a new step in our honoring the achievements of and for women at Carolina,” Moeser said. “We should each recognize what has been accomplished in our efforts to make Carolina a place where women want to come to study, teach and serve.”

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