News Release

American Council on Education honors
Moeser for Carolina Covenant, diversity efforts

CHAPEL HILL -- The American Council on Education today (Feb. 13) honored University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chancellor James Moeser with the Reginald Wilson Diversity Leadership Award.

The prestigious lifetime achievement award recognizes leaders who have made major contributions to the advancement of diversity in American higher education. The honor is named for Reginald Wilson, senior scholar emeritus at the council and former director of its Office of Minority Concerns.

Moeser received the award at a ceremony held in conjunction with the council's annual meeting in Washington, D.C. Other recipients of this year's Wilson award were Diana S. Natalicio, president of the University of Texas at El Paso; William E. Cox, president and chief executive officer of Diverse Issues in Higher Education magazine; and Frank L. Matthews, publisher and editor in chief of the same magazine.

In selecting Moeser, council officials cited his leadership in the launch of UNC-Chapel Hill's nationally recognized Carolina Covenant, which provides a debt-free education to deserving low-income students. More than 900 students have benefited from the Carolina Covenant since it was launched 2004. Covenant students agree to work on campus 10 to 12 hours per week in a federal work-study job; Carolina meets the rest of their needs through a combination of federal, state, university, and other privately funded grants and scholarships.

Carolina was the first major public university to launch such a program. The Carolina Covenant has spawned more than two dozen similar programs at public and private universities nationwide. Last September, the university hosted a major conference, "The Politics of Inclusion: Higher Education at a Crossroads," seeking national solutions to the complex issues surrounding access and affordability. More than 150 state and federal policymakers, economists, researchers, foundation and business leaders and educators from across the country exchanged ideas intended to help shape national policy and practice. Conference papers and guidelines will be published in a book.

Moeser has championed the university's longtime commitment to diversity and an open intellectual community since arriving in 2000. He appointed a campus task force that produced the university's first diversity plan, which is being implemented. The campus has also marked progress in several key areas. For example, the Carolina student body has become more diverse during Moeser's tenure, continuing a positive trend. While the admissions policy is race-, gender- and need-blind, the diversity of the entering class has significantly improved across minority categories in the past five years. The university also has received national recognition from publications such as The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education for its admission rates of entering black students.

Founded in 1918, the council is the major coordinating body for all the nation's higher education institutions, representing more than 1,600 college and university presidents, and more than 200 related associations, nationwide. It seeks to provide leadership and a unifying voice on key higher education issues and influence public policy through advocacy, research and program initiatives.

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Photo URL: http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/admin/chancellor/moeser_james.jpg

News Services contact: Lisa Katz, (919) 962-2093, lisa_katz@unc.edu