President Likins receives award for diversity

President Peter Likins will receive an award today for his leadership and commitment to enhancing diversity at the university.

The event starts at 1:15 p.m. in the South Ballroom of the Student Union Memorial Center, where Likins will receive the first Excellence and Diversity Award, which will be in his name thereafter, said Edith Auslander, vice president and senior associate to the president and Diversity Coalition chairwoman.

Likins is very deserving of the award because of his remarkable leadership in building a multicultural UA community, Auslander said.

Raji Rhys-Wietecha, assistant director of the Diversity Resource Office, agreed.

"He doesn't just talk the talk," Rhys-Wietecha said. "He walks the walk."

Likins has helped enhance diversity on campus by establishing, among other things, the Diversity Coalition, which creates and

monitors the Diversity Action plan to broaden diversity at the UA, Rhys-Wietecha said.

Likins has also advocated for the increase of a diverse student body as well as the hiring of a diverse faculty and staff, Rhys-Wietecha said.

"On his cresident's Cabinet of 20 administrators, 10 are women and 10 are men," Rhys-Wietecha said.

The 20 Cabinet members include six minorities; four Hispanics, one black and one Asian-Pacific member, Rhys-Wietecha said.

Likins also created several diversity councils, which advise him on various multicultural issues, Rhys-Wietecha said.

These advisory councils include representatives from the American Indian, Asian Pacific American, African American Disability, Hispanic, and gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities, Rhys-Wietecha said.

Ben Graff, student regent and third-year law student at the James E. Rogers College of Law, will be presenting the award to Likins.

Graff said he believes Likins has been one of the UA's greatest champions for diversity.

"He has taken advantage of his position in a way that has allowed him to not only to spread the word about diversity but to spread the appreciation and a need for diversity," Graff said.

"It (the award) will show that this university expects nothing less," Graff said.

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