DCRP graduate receives Distinguished Alumna Award
October 12, 2003

Faculty, distinguished alumni, students and others proceeded from
the Old Well to Hill Hall Auditorium to celebrate the University of North
Carolina’s 210th annual University Day.  This year's University Day
commemorated the laying of the first cornerstone and celebrated the 100th
anniversary of the founding of the Graduate School.

Chancellor James Moeser presided over the ceremony. "A University with
such an illustrious past as ours is worth celebrating."  He also commended
the success of the Graduate School. "Twentieth- century Carolina grew into
the research institution it is today," Moeser said.




University Day included the presentation of an Alumnus Awards to Shirley Friedlander Weiss, who received her
Master of Regional Planning degree from UNC in 1958. Weiss was the Department of City and Regional Planning’s
first female faculty member and was later promoted to full Professor.  Weiss, a pioneer in urban research, served
as Associate Research Director of the Center for Urban and Regional Studies and Acting Director of Women’s Studies.  

In 1992, Weiss and her husband, Dr. Charles Weiss (pictured together above), established UNC’s Urban Livability
Program, providing support for graduate fellowships, a resident scholar, essay competitions and a special collection
in the Chapin Planning Library.