May 9, 2014
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Amherst President Biddy Martin received an honorary degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on Sunday, May 11. The other recipients at UNC-Chapel Hill’s commencement this weekend, which draws an annual audience of some 30,000, include former North Carolina Governor Beverly Eaves Perdue, best-selling author Armistead Jones Maupin Jr. and pioneering historian Anne Firor Scott.
UNC awarded Martin a doctor of laws degree in recognition of her long and distinguished career as a professor and college administrator. Honorary degree recipients are nominated by UNC’s Honorary Degrees and Special Awards Committee, recommended by the Faculty Council and then approved by the university’s Board of Trustees.
“[Martin’s] record of teaching and scholarship in German studies and women’s studies has earned her recognition, but it is as an administrative leader in higher education that she has made her most enduring contributions,” reads a UNC commencement press release about the honor.