April 2001

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Phillips honored for work on behalf of student media

Photo by Dan Sears

Known to most in the School as the "Grammar Maven," Kay Phillips prefers the title "Grammar Guru" or "Grammar Goddess" — the latter especially will win you favor in her eyes. But besides teaching students tricks about spelling or where to place punctuation, Phillips’ larger task, as director of the N.C. Scholastic Media Association (NCSMA), is improving scholastic publications throughout the state and helping stamp out the censorship that threatens high school media.

"It takes someone with expertise to help students claim rights they were born with," Phillips said.

In recognition of her expertise and accomplishments, Phillips recently was an inaugural recipient of the Columbia Scholastic Press Association’s (CSPA) prestigious Jubilee Award. The association is an international student press group that unites journalists and faculty advisers at schools and colleges through educational conferences, idea exchanges and award programs. The group celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2000 by honoring 75 individuals who have made tremendous contributions to its history.

For Phillips, the importance of the Jubilee Award lies in the fact that "someone other than me has been caring about what I have done."

Also, she recently received the James F. Paschal Award from CSPA. The award honors the outstanding scholastic press association director in the country.

Phillips graduated from Furman with a bachelor’s degree in elementary education. After four years of teaching fifth and sixth grade, she returned to school at North Carolina State University to finish courses required to teach English. Teaching again, Phillips began to attend summer workshops presented by NCSMA and became very involved in school publications.

As NCSMA began to grow, it received a three-year monetary grant from the State Department of Public Instruction. The need to find a permanent director led to a nationwide search that ended with Phillips coming to the helm in January 1994. When funding ran out, NCSMA threatened to cease operation, but advisers from across the state petitioned for and received permanent state funding. The future of the association will never again be in question.

Phillips’ goal through the organization is to "find a way to reach principals that will hire advisers they trust" and eliminate subtle censorship. So many schools are afraid of stepping on toes and offending readers, Phillips said, but what most administrators fear, a libel case, has never occurred in North Carolina involving scholastic publications.

The Daily Tar Heel launched NCSMA in 1938 as the N.C. Scholastic Press Association, but the group underwent a name change in 1995 from "press" to "media" as part of Phillips’ personal crusade to include broadcasting and other visual arts in scholastic associations.

Phillips also works with the Journalism Education Association Certification Commission, and she served on the 2000 executive board of the Student Press Law Center. She has received the Journalism Education Association Award, the Carl Towley Award and the National Journalism Teacher of the Year.

Elizabeth Salter is a junior in the public relations sequence.