Diversity awards to be presented after forum
The recipients of this year’s President’s Diversity Awards will be recognized Thursday, following a forum entitled “Climate for Women on Campus.”
The forum will be held in the Eccles Conference Center Auditorium at 10 a.m.
Utah State University President Kermit L. Hall will facilitate a discussion with a panel that will include Tom Kent, dean of Graduate Studies; Bonita Wyse, dean of the College of Family Life; F.E. Busby, dean of the College of Natural Resources; Butch Brodie, department head of Biology; Caryn Beck-Dudley, department head of Management and Human Resources; Norm Jones, department head of History; Pam Riley, professor of Social Work and Anthropology; Ann Aust, professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry; Mary Leavitt, director of the Science/HASS Advising Center; Mava Pitcher, systems operations technician in Central Distribution; and Lorraine Pace, Utah Representative, District Four.
Sue Guenter-Schlesinger, director of the Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Office, said she hopes discussion of the issue will not end at the forum.
“President Hall wants to encourage people to continue to think about the climate for women,” she said. “The intent is to solicit input, with the hope that positive change will occur.”
Recipients of the President’s Diversity Awards – Robert L. Gilliland, Grace Huerta, Todd Milovich, Curt Schiller and Edna F. Hinman – will be recognized following the forum for their contributions to affirmative action, equal opportunity and diversity.
Gilliland will receive this year’s award for administrator. He is retiring this year as vice president for Extension and Continuing Education. Since coming to USU in 1992, he has developed ways to promote and develop diversity in Extension programming and to take that message across the state through Extension education efforts, according to a news release. He also created an annual Extension Diversity Award, presented to the people who best promote an environment where pluralism is achieved.
Huerta, who is an associate professor in secondary education, will receive the award in the faculty category. She actively strives to recruit underrepresented minority students into the College of Education and diversity issues constitute the major themes of her scholarly work, including publications relevant to secondary education preparation, multicultural education, educational policy and curriculum design. She and her colleagues helped to create an English as a Second Language teacher certification program, the first of its kind at USU.
Milovich will receive the award as a USU staff member. He is the assistant director in the Financial Aid office and has initiated a number of outreach programs in Cache Valley schools in an effort to promote the idea that a college education is possible for any student. He founded the America Reads Multicultural Learning Fair at USU, which each year reaches an average of 275 at-risk students. He also works closely with local school districts to bring multicultural middle school and high school students to USU to develop self-confidence and leadership schools.
Schiller will be honored in the student category. He is a senior majoring in management and is a “shining example of someone who furthers the principles and values of affirmative action, equal opportunity and diversity,” one person wrote in a nomination letter. He taught Hispanic youth in his church and organized a drive to help people of Central America affected by hurricanes in 1998. He is also an assistant scout master for a multicultural Boy Scout troop and has been a director of the American-International Relations Council, which stressed the importance of bridging the gaps between different cultures.
Hinman will receive the community member award. She had her first experience with diversity when she was sent as a beginning teacher to the Manzanar Internment camp during World War II, and she still maintains contact with a number of her students. In the early 1960s, as an assistant superintendent in Nevada schools, she was responsible for recruiting, hiring, training and retaining minority teachers and principals. She has also spent the last 13 years working in the mental health system to fight the perceived stigma of mental illness.
For more information about the forum or the Diversity Award recipients, call the USU AA/EO office at 797-1266.