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Excellence in Diversity awards: 'U' recognizes community members
Students express diversity through their artworks
Three MSU students received Excellence in diversity awards for illustrating diversity through musical and visual artwork in the “Students Making a Difference Through Artistic Expression” contest.
Sierra López, Ann Arbor
López’s self-portrait is a collage representing the type of person she is today: her culture and her positive and negative experiences in life. Standing in front of glowing red, white, blue and green mountains, her left arm is an eagle’s wing and her right arm is covered with thorns – the stem to the rose that replaces her hand.
Victor Marquez, Maracaibo, Venezuela
Marquez believes that diversity is not only something learned in classrooms. To him, it is a way of life. His entry is an expression of the similarities between two traditional music styles, Brazilian choro and American ragtime and how bringing together culturally diverse styles of music has influenced musical genres such as jazz.
Dohi Moon, Seoul, South Korea
Moon has been drawn to music ever since she was 5 years old when her mother taught herself to play piano. Her electronic composition entry, titled “Interpretation I,” is a musical collage with Johann Sebastian Bach’s music serving as a backdrop.
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By Kristin K. Anderson
Michigan State University recognized students, faculty and staff for innovative efforts in promoting diversity at the annual Excellence in Diversity Recognition and Awards program on Wednesday, March 14.
“MSU’s expression of commitment to diversity and inclusion is exemplified by the extraordinary efforts of the 2007 recipients of the Excellence in Diversity awards,” said Paulette Granberry Russell, director of the Office for Inclusion and Intercultural Initiatives and senior adviser to the president for diversity.
“There are recipients whose emerging efforts represent the future for inclusion on our campus. There are others who have been a part of Team MSU and have sustained their efforts to create, enhance and support diversity over the course of their careers,” she said. “And this year, the Lifetime Achievement Award goes to MSU Associate Provost Dr. Robert Banks who has demonstrated time and again that through strong, consistent and effective leadership, our core value of inclusiveness becomes our reality.”
Individual and team recipients of Excellence in Diversity awards receive a cash award of $2,500. Three students will receive Students Making a Difference Through Artistic Expression cash awards of $500.
Student award recipients were Sierra López of Ann Arbor, a junior majoring in family community services; Victor Marquez of Maracaibo, Venezuela, a first-year master’s student in music composition; and Dohi Moon of Seoul, South Korea, a second-year doctoral student in music composition (see sidebar).
Winners of the 2007 Multicultural Heroes Hall of Fame and the 2007 International Student Essay Contest also were recognized at the program.
Individual award winners
 NiCole T. Buchanan-Biddle, assistant professor of psychology, College of Social Science, received the Excellence in Diversity Emerging Progress award. Her research focuses on racial-ethnic populations and the experiences of those groups. Buchanan developed the concept of racialized sexual harassment and pioneered work on how youth bullying is related to gender. She has been a Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement/Summer Research Opportunity Program mentor. She continues to advance the career success of students of color within academia.
 Sonya Gunnings-Moton, assistant dean for student support services and recruitment, College of Education, received an Excellence in Diversity award for Sustained Effort Toward Excellence in Diversity. As a faculty member and in her current position, she has advanced the college’s efforts to provide programs for students of color in urban K-12 schools. Gunnings-Moton developed The Broad Partnership between the College of Education and Detroit Public Schools with programs for summer high school scholars, future teachers and summer teaching fellows. She also serves as the codirector of the urban educator cohort program.
 Darrell E. King, associate director of Multicultural Business Programs, The Eli Broad College of Business, received an Excellence in Diversity award for Sustained Effort Toward Excellence in Diversity. King, who serves as a mentor and recruiter of students of color, has played a vital role in creating and organizing several multicultural business program-sponsored events within the college. Some of these are the Black History Month Multicultural Heroes Hall of Fame Case Competition, the Admit One program, Skills for Success and the Asian Pacific American Business Student Leadership Conference. King also has served as the adviser to the MSU chapter of the National Association of Black Accountants.
Team award winners
 Ken Crowell and Shawn Kelley, service managers, Physical Plant Division, received an Excellence in Diversity Excellence Emerging Progress award. They actively search, recruit and develop a work force that is sustainable, reliable and diverse. Using an innovative color-coded diversity map of the state, they have identified minority concentrations in Michigan and post-high school education facilities. Crowell and Kelley have proactively developed innovative approaches, methods and avenues to increase the diversity of maintenance services offices.
 M. Chandos McCoy, McDonel Hall manager, Division of Housing and Food Services, and Barnaby Pung, McDonel Hall complex director, Department of Residence Life, received an Excellence in Diversity Excellence Emerging Progress award. Through inclusive and accessible programming, McCoy and Pung provide leadership in creating an accepting, multicultural and multilingual environment to live and learn outside the classroom. With the support of several campus departments, they created the International Culture and Language Residence floor, and have offered many programs on diversity of cultures, languages, religions and customs.
Unit award recipients
 Residency and Graduate Student Training Programs, Department of Pathobiology and Diagnostic Investigation, received an Excellence in Diversity Excellence within Community award and was recognized for its progress toward diversity collaboration. The department maintains consistent diversity and multiculturalism in its graduate training and other programs with faculty, taking an active role in recruiting, selecting and mentoring students. The department has an active collaboration with Tuskegee University, the only North American veterinary college with a predominantly minority professional student population.
 The Office of Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay and Transgender Concerns, Division of Student Affairs and Services, received an Excellence in Diversity award for Excellent Progress Toward Advancing Diversity within Community. Office staff members have worked to craft alliances among and between diverse groups of students, faculty and staff; designed innovative programs; and partnered with numerous campus groups to address students’ concerns with the university structure. They have led and collaborated on numerous initiatives focusing on issues of sexual orientation and gender identity in a multicultural, multi-issue context.
Lifetime Achievement Award
 Robert F. Banks, associate provost and associate vice president for academic human resources, received a Lifetime Achievement Award for his more than 25 years of service at MSU. He is responsible for individual academic personnel actions, academic policies and procedures, faculty and academic staff development, special programs, and recognition events for faculty and academic staff. He also serves in a liaison role with administrators concerned with university staff and labor relations. As an administrator, professor in the James Madison College and adjunct professor in the School of Labor and Industrial Relations, Banks has continuously been a strong supporter of diversity efforts and programming at the university. He serves on numerous campus committees, including the Vice Presidential Diversity Advisory Group and MSU Institutional Diversity Excellence in Action coordinators group.
Photos on this page by G.L. Kohuth and Kurt Stepnitz, University Relations.
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