|
NEWS SERVICES |
| For immediate use |
April 26, 2004 -- No. 237 |
Photo note: To download photos of Daye, see end of the release.
UNC faculty honor Daye with prestigious Thomas Jefferson award
By SCOTT RAGLAND
UNC News Services
CHAPEL HILL -- Charles Daye, Henry P. Brandis professor of law at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has received the 2004 Thomas Jefferson Award.
Chancellor James Moeser presented the award to Daye of Durham at an April 23 Faculty Council meeting.
The annual Thomas Jefferson Award, which includes a monetary prize, was created in 1961 by the Robert Earll McConnell Foundation and traditionally goes to a faculty member who "through personal influence and performance of duty in teaching, writing and scholarship has best exemplified the ideals and objectives of Thomas Jefferson."
But while the award may honor Jefferson's legacy, when it comes to Daye, another president comes to mind.
"Jefferson was a brilliant national leader, a sparkling presence on the young American scene, and thus our UNC award is most appropriate . . . but today, with a small caveat: Charles Daye’s many virtues fit less the mold of the author of the Declaration of Independence than of his Virginia colleague, James Madison, to whom we largely owe the American Constitution."
So says the 2004 Thomas Jefferson Award citation, as read at the Faculty Council meeting by John "Jack" Boger, Daye's colleague in the School of Law.
As scholars have shown, Boger said, it was Madison's intelligence, modesty and respect for others' opinions as well as their emotions that made him the unassuming architect of the Constitution.
And Daye has played a similar role at Carolina for 30 years, "strengthening this University immensely while providing crucial national leadership to legal education" through his dedication and resourcefulness, Boger said.
After graduating with honors from N.C. Central University and Columbia University School of Law, Daye clerked for Chief Judge Harry Phillips of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He then entered private practice with a distinguished Washington, D.C., law firm.
He came to Carolina in 1975 and launched a "brilliant academic career," Boger said. He soon served as lead author of "Housing and Community Development," a text that since has established itself as the field's national authority. Daye later wrote "North Carolina Law of Torts," which has achieved similar prominence among state legal circles.
Boger described Daye as a "gifted but demanding teacher" much beloved by his students for his "enthusiasm for the law and his unfailing respect" for them.
But Daye's service has extended far beyond the classroom. After leaving Carolina to serve a four-year stint as dean of the law school at N.C. Central University, he returned to the Chapel Hill campus in 1985 and was often elected to chair key law school and University committees.
He's particularly made his mark on student and faculty diversity issues, twice heading the law school's special Admissions Policy Committee as well as the campus-wide Affirmative Action Advisory Committee.
Daye's expertise in these areas has garnered national prominence. The Law School Admissions Council, which oversees admissions policies for the nation's law schools, named Daye to its Board of Trustees in 1988 and later made him its president and spokesperson from 1991 to 1993.
As legal challenges to affirmative action admissions policies mounted in the mid-1990s, the Association of American Law Schools brought in Daye to serve on a special Diversity Task Force in 1999 and on a Joint Committee on Diversity in 2001.
Daye co-wrote a brief in 2003 that helped sway the Supreme Court to preserve affirmative action in college and university admissions.
"Despite his fearless speech and his indispensable contributions," Boger said, Daye has worked diligently behind the scenes just as Madison did, "willing for others to receive credit so long as the vital work was done."
- 30 -
Photo URLs:
News Services Contact: Mike McFarland, (919) 962-8593, mike_mcfarland@unc.edu.
