The Associated Students of the University of Nevada honored its outstanding clubs and organizations in an awards ceremony on April 10 in the Joe Crowley Student Union. Exceptional clubs, club leaders, advisors and programs were awarded for their contributions in bringing enjoyable activities and experiences to campus.

“The clubs and organizations work hard on campus,” said Amy Koeckes, associate director of marketing and media. “They give students the opportunity to get involved outside of the classroom.”

The winners of the ASUN Clubs and Organizations Awards are as follows:

• Club of the Year: Art of Living
• Community Service Award: Circle K
• Program of the Year: Black Student Organization Ball
• New Club of the Year: Latino Research Center Student Advisory Board
• Intra-Club of the Year: Lambda Phi Xi
• Club Leader of the Year: Daniel Hernandez, Delta Sigma Pi
• Advisor of the Year: Christina Sarman, Pi Beta Phi

The clubs and organizations honored in the ceremony have their names engraved in the trophies in the ASUN office. Some organizations, club leaders and advisor winners received cash prizes and plaques.

Clubs, organizations and club leaders nominations were submitted to a committee, headed by Maria Urbina, director of clubs and organizations, for consideration.

The choice may be made even more difficult in the future, as interest in campus events and organizations grows. Of the University’s student population, she believes there are about 2,000 participants in ASUN clubs and organizations.

“The most clubs we’ve ever had was at about 215,” Koeckes said. “I anticipate that number will hit 300 easily in the next couple of years.”

Instead of talking about the differences between people, professor Esther Jones Langston said she wants to talk about similarities at a diversity seminar.

Langston is leading the seminar, "Cultural Competency in a Multicultural Society," from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. today at the University of Nevada, Reno, part of full day of campus activities about diversity during Black History Month.

Langston, a University of Nevada, Las Vegas faculty member who has been conducting diversity training since the 1960s, said she will be combining lectures with hands-on exercises geared to help service providers get in touch with their prejudices.

"If they say they don't have one, they're lying," Langston said. "It's just so ingrained in us, we don't think about it."

Anyone who is willing to get honest with themselves is welcome to attend the seminar, she said.

"My premise is that you have to have a self-awareness of what it is you value and how you value it," she said. "And how you deal with those whose view of the world is also different."

Her solution is to respect the worth and dignity of every human being, she said.

"You have to learn to respect regardless," Langston said.

An afternoon panel discussion, "Confronting the -isms, Dismantling the -isms" provides a forum for university students to discuss their experiences, said Rita McGary, one of the organizers.

"We're making a small contribution," said McGary, a member of the American Association of University Women. "We're providing the students a small forum to talk about their experiences as minority students.

The AAUW is one of the sponsors of the panel with Lambda Phi Xi, a multicultural sorority on campus.

It is in the sorority's charter to have as diverse a membership as possible, said Alison Tanzer, president.

"We want to be a part of that movement that lets people know that there is a lot of diversity on our campus," Tanzer said. "I'm not saying by any stretch of the imagination that Reno or UNR doesn't have racism. But where can we begin to talk about it so that it can be dismantled?"..