COMU awards recognize diversity achievements

The Commission On Multicultural Understanding presented six COMU awards in the Mathers Museum Thursday to individuals and groups contributing to multicultural awareness. \nRecipients were chosen for their proven dedication to diversity. Maura Halpern and Jonathan Rossing won the undergraduate and graduate student awards, respectively. Lillian Casillas took home the staff award, while Carolyn Calloway-Thomas received the faculty award. The community award was presented to Judge Viola J. Taliaferro, and the National Day of Silence was honored with the program award.\nCasillas, who also serves as COMU's ceremony organizer and was surprised by her nomination, said the awards symbolize the COMU's gratitude for diversity drivers.\n"It's a good way to remember that there are a lot of really good people doing really good things," Casillas said. "A lot of times no one really publicizes those things."\nRossing, who, along with winning the graduate student award, also was co-acceptor for the program award that went to the National Day of Silence, said the behaviors necessary for winning should be a forgone conclusion for anyone.\n"It seems kind of awkward to get awards for things you should just do," Rossing said. "It seems like it's just life, you should just do it."\nIn addition to participating in the National Day of Silence, Rossing has been serving as a diversity education specialist with the CommUNITY Education Program.\nHalpern, the arts editor for the Indiana Daily Student, received her award for diversity reporting, among other things. She said diversity can be a difficult issue to tackle.\n"You have to have a thick skin to write that kind of stuff," Halpern said. "People are going to think that you're offensive either way. Either you're being too biased or you're not being biased enough. But as a journalist, you have to be objective."\nCalloway-Thomas said the awards were an inspiring relief from a world not interested in diversity.\n"People lack respect for diversity," Calloway-Thomas said. "These awards affirm my belief that virtues such as good will, kindness, caring and consideration for others really do matter."\nTaliaferro, a heavily-awarded Hoosier judge, humbly said she doesn't deserve the recognition.\n"The people who don't know me might give me awards because they don't know any better," Taliaferro said.\nThe National Day of Silence was created for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students, but Rossing said it has taken on a broader significance. \n"Now it's a student-led day of action in which people use their silence to protest the discrimination, harassment and silencing many other people feel regularly," Rossing said. "At IU, we really recognize that lots of those groups are silenced."\nPrevious COMU awards have gone to Helene G. Simon Hillel Center Director Rabbi Sue Shifron, the Muslim Student Union and Herman B Wells. \n-- Contact staff writer Rick Newkirk at renewkir@indiana.edu.