Issue date: April 10, 2003

MSU Diversity Award winners recognized

By Kristin K. Anderson

Individuals, teams, and units and organizations at MSU will be honored April 10 for their innovation and outstanding efforts to promote and achieve diversity during MSU's annual Excellence in Diversity Recognition and Awards Program.

The 4 p.m. event is in the Kellogg Center Auditorium, with a reception following in Big Ten Room B.

Individual and team recipients of "Excellence in Diversity" awards receive a $2,500 cash award.

Awardees in the individual category are Matthew J. Anderson, associate professor of accounting and information systems; Renee Canady, assistant professor and director of student affairs in the College of Nursing; and Khalida Zaki, specialist/adviser in the Department of Sociology.

Team award recipients who have demonstrated "Excellence Within Community" are John P. Beck, associate professor in the School of Labor and Industrial Relations, and Yvonne R. Lockwood, senior academic specialist and curator of folklife at the MSU Museum.

Units or organizations that have demonstrated "Excellent Progress Toward Achieving Diversity and Pluralism" are honored with a plaque.

Recipients of unit awards and plaques for demonstrating "Excellent Progress Toward Achieving Diversity and Pluralism" are the King-Chavez-Parks Pre-College Day programs and the SUPER (Summer University Program -- Excellence Required) program in the Office of Supportive Services.

Winners of the "Students Making A Difference Through Artistic Expression" contest, each of whom receives a $500 award, are April Liu, a graduate student in fine arts; Robert Ortega, a senior majoring in film studies; and Meng-Shu You, a graduate student in studio art. Eight students will be recognized with honorable mention awards at the program.

"Within any organization it is important to recognize those whose contributions exceed what is normally expected of them. MSU is no exception," said Paulette Granberry Russell, director of the Office of Affirmative Action Compliance and Monitoring and senior adviser to the president for diversity. "The individuals and teams who are being recognized for their outstanding achievements in support of diversity are exemplars of our Guiding Principle, 'Advancing Diversity Within Community.' They are to be commended for their contributions to the university and beyond."

Winners' names will be added to the diversity wall plaque located in the Main Library. Including the 2003 winners, 87 individuals, units and teams have been honored for diversity efforts since the award was initiated in 1990.

Individual winners

Matthew J. Anderson

Matthew J. Anderson, associate professor of accounting, is involved in increasing the representation of underrepresented groups within the university. He assists the Office of Admissions and Scholarships in recruitment activities and participates in recruitment activities for the athletic department. Within The Eli Broad College of Business, he was involved in the establishment of the Minority Business Program and volunteered to recruit and tutor minority students to and in the program. As director of the doctoral program in accounting, Anderson has recruited more women and minority doctoral candidates than any other program in the college or across the Big Ten. He also has worked collaboratively with staff at different universities to initiate, implement and evaluate programs designed to improve opportunities for minorities and women in higher education. Anderson is a graduate of Kalamazoo College and received his master's and doctoral degrees from MSU.

Renee Canady

Renee Canady, assistant professor and, since 1996, director of student affairs in the College of Nursing, has developed a new elective nursing course focused on diversity and multicultural issues in health care settings involving patient-provider relationships. She has instituted intensive participa-tory workshops that immerse faculty, students and staff in simulated diversity experiences, and integrated diversity issues throughout her undergraduate and graduate nursing curricula. Canady has worked to increase the diversity of the student population, this year resulting in an entering class of 25 percent minority students in the undergraduate program. She has convened the Scholarship of Diversity Research Group, a multidisciplinary research team that serves as a support and growth vehicle for work of its members. Canady, who received bachelor's degrees from the University of North Carolina, her master's from Western Michigan University and her doctorate from MSU, is active in many community organizations.

Khalida Zaki

Khalida Zaki, an academic specialist/adviser in the Department of Sociology, contributes to enhancing diversity through her teaching, relationships with student advisees, research, and civic and professional activities. She incorporates basic ideas and principles using diversity themes, exposing students to diversity issues in a variety of contexts. Zaki pioneered a project dealing with the social and cultural barriers to health care utilization among Muslim women in the Greater Lansing area. She is working on a project involving social, cultural and religious issues of parents, young people and schools to develop community programs for young people and a training program for teachers regarding religious and cultural diversity issues in area schools. She is currently developing a training proposal on democracy, gender and religious issues in Pakistan in collaboration with the MSU Office of Women in International Development and colleagues from other universities to link MSU to other institutions in the United States and Pakistan. Zaki holds bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of the Punjab, Pakistan, a master's from the University of Baltimore and a doctorate from MSU.

Team winner

Photos by G.L. Kohuth and Brian McNea

"Our Daily Work/Our Daily Lives" co-directors are Yvonne R. Lockwood (left), senior academic specialist/adviser and curator of folklife at the MSU Museum, and John P. Beck, associate professor and director of the Labor Education Program in the School of Labor and Industrial Relations.

John P. Beck, associate professor and director of the Labor Education Program in the School of Labor and Industrial Relations, and Yvonne R. Lockwood, senior academic specialist and curator of folklife at the MSU Museum, have, for more than 10 years, co-directed a brown-bag series of seminars on "Our Daily Work/Our Daily Lives." The project is dedicated to the exploration, preservation and presentation of "workers' culture." Since 1997 the series has sponsored more than 37 presentations from MSU faculty, graduate students, faculty from other institutions, union representatives, staff, artists and others. Beck and Lockwood are conducting field research on South African workers' culture for inclusion in a future exhibit.

Beck, a member of the Core Faculty of MSU's African Studies Center, has taught a variety of labor union leadership courses to union groups in and outside the state. He spent 11 months as a visiting professor in the Labor Relations Unit at the University of Port Elizabeth, South Africa. He holds degrees from MSU and the University of Michigan.

Lockwood has served as an associate coordinator of the Michigan Traditional Arts Program, which is dedicated to the advancement of cultural understanding through the identification, documentation, preservation and presentation of cultural heritage and traditions. She and Beck curated two exhibits on worker artists. She holds bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of California-Berkeley, and a doctorate from the University of Michigan.

Organization winners

The King-Chavez-Parks (KCP) Pre-College Day programs team members are (front row from left) Michaelina Magnusor, Joanne MacFadden, Pam Bellamy and Linda Todd and (back row from left) Mihaela Peteu, Kurt Reed and Paulo Gordillo.

The King-Chavez-Parks (KCP) Pre-College Day programs started at MSU in 1986 with funding from the state Legislature. Programs designed to inform and prepare students to help with the challenges of higher education have been developed, including a "Michigan State Model" for utilizing family in the pre-college process.

KCP staff members focus the program on a supportive "family reunion" approach to education, with families visiting campus to hear from educators, financial aid and career advisers, faculty, student athletes and others involved in helping students achieve success in college.

Other activities and programs include a "KCP Family Theater Day" and "KCP High School," where students from throughout Michigan come together and experience each other's cultures and knowledge, opening doors to enrichment opportunities that might otherwise not have been possible.

The SUPER program team members in the Office of Supportive Services are (from left) Yalana Bryant, Betty J. Sanford and Tess Kim.

The SUPER program in the Office of Supportive Services helps meet the needs and challenges of incoming freshmen who may be first-generation, low-income college students. Staff members provide them with access to MSU academic and other collegiate experiences, help instill life skills and offer opportunities for support and guidance through the transition to a university environment.

They also celebrate the students' accomplishments at a banquet at the end of the program. For each of the past 15 years, 30 students of all ethnic backgrounds and cultures participated in eight weeks of academic enrichment opportunities. SUPER staff partner with Office of Admissions and Scholarships staff and local high schools around the state.

The office also works collaboratively with the University of Michigan to bring together programs from Michigan and Illinois.