Female Students Hold Top 3 Leadership Posts

Richter, who replaces December graduate Tony Larson as speaker, joins Student Body President Jen Daum and Student Attorney General Amanda Spillman in their leadership roles.

Dean Bresciani, interim vice chancellor for student affairs, said the event is a sign of the University's progress in the past few decades. "This is a University community that was very late in recognizing and advancing the abilities of women. It is making very notable strides."

Richter said the accomplishment is especially notable because of the University's late acceptance of women. UNC began admitting females as graduate students in 1897 but did not admit women as freshman undergraduates without restrictions until 1972.

"It is amazing considering we (women) haven't been at the University as long as at our peer institutes."

Daum said she hopes students will recognize that representation reflecting the female majority on campus is long overdue. "I hope that most people would think it's about time (women were in leadership positions)," she said. "This campus is so predominantly female that it makes sense that we would have females in prominent leadership positions."

Spillman also referenced UNC's notoriously high ratio of women to men. "People are realizing that women make great leaders."

Richter said there has been a growing trend of female leaders on campus over the past few years. In addition to student government, women lead many other student organizations this year, including the Residence Hall Association, Carolina Athletic Association, the Black Student Movement and Masala.

"It shows a trend of women our age breaking the mold," Richter said. "We're breaking the glass ceiling."

Diane Kjervik, director of the Carolina Women's Center, said she is pleased that Daum, Spillman and Richter are in influential positions at the same time. "Truly, this is an opportunity for women's voices to be heard," she said. "So often women's voices are overpowered by the tradition and familiarity of the male voice."

Bresciani stressed that Daum, Richter and Spillman are more than just women in powerful positions, they are capable leaders. "I don't think these women are in leadership positions because they are women," Bresciani said. "They are there because they are the most qualified for that position."

Spillman said she and others on campus, including CAA President Kris Willett, are helping to break stereotypes. "Women can often be perceived as not as tough, more bubbly," she said. "(We) are showing that women can be tough, can care about issues, can do the right thing and can also stand their ground.

"We're showing that women can hold their own."

The University Editor can be reached at udesk@unc.edu.