Chancellor receives award

Interim IU-Bloomington Chancellor Ken Gros Louis has always made promoting diversity at IU one of his top goals. By creating several cultural centers, helping increase minority enrollment and supporting the hiring of minorities into administration positions, he has done just that during his more than 40-year tenure at the University. \nRecognizing Gros Louis' career-long contributions to diversity, the American Council on Education's Center for Advancement of Racial and Ethnic Equality presented him with one of three Reginald Wilson Diversity Leadership Awards in a ceremony Oct. 7 in Phoenix. \n"This is a lifetime achievement award," said William Harvey, vice president of the center at ACE. "Dr. Gros Louis has done just that in his many years of service promoting diversity."\nHarvey went on to say that Gros Louis has made a more diverse setting at IU by providing opportunities and services for students and faculty of various races and backgrounds. \nSpecifically, Harvey said Gros Louis' efforts in creating the African American, Asian and Latino cultural centers on campus are one of Gros Louis' top achievements. The ACE also considered his help with a diversity plan which helped in "appointing many people of color to various positions in the administration."\n"I am honored and surprised to be the recipient of this reward," Gros Louis said. "Promoting diversity at IU not only helps minority students but also the entire student population as they can learn about other cultures."\nAs the first and only person of verifiable American Indian ancestry to lead a major U.S. research university, Gros Louis has always had a deep commitment to promoting diversity on campus.\n"Ken Gros Louis' fingerprints can be found on virtually every one of IU's diversity initiatives dating back to the late 1960s, when he joined a group of Bloomington faculty on a visit to Gary, Ind., to recruit prospective minority students," Charlie Nelms, vice president for institutional development and student affairs, said in a press release. "Those activities led to the establishment of the Groups Program, the Minority Achievers Program and the Strategic Hiring Program, among others."\nFrom his work with the Hudson and Holland Scholars Program, which seeks to recruit and retain academically gifted minorities, to assisting the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Student Support Services office in its initiatives, Gros Louis has covered a wide variety of areas in his efforts and support of diversity, said his supporters. \n"During Ken's long tenure as vice president for academic affairs and chancellor of the Bloomington campus, IU has become recognized widely as a University that provides a very supportive and nurturing learning environment for all of its students," said IU President Adam Herbert in a press release. "While there is still work to be done, under his leadership, Bloomington's minority enrollments have increased steadily, and its retention rate has become a model for student persistence." \nAs the nation's largest association representing higher education, the ACE created the Reginald Wilson Diversity Leadership Award in 2001 to recognize those who have worked to promote diversity on college campuses in the long-term. Joining Gros Louis as the other recipients of the 2005 award were Jacquelyn M. Belcher, former president of Georgia Perimeter College, and Tomas Arciniega, president emeritus of California State University, Bakersfield. \nDespite all the achievements and recognition Gros Louis has earned during his long tenure at IU, he added the University still has to do more before he will be satisfied with the state of diversity on campus. \n"I think we all can agree that there is more to be done to promote diversity at IU," Gros Louis said. "We need to be more aggressive in working with students in middle and grade school to be prepared for college and be taking the right courses"