The Martin Luther King Diversity Awards took place at the CSN Recital Hall on Feb. 27, honoring a number of faculty, administrators and students for their work to promote diversity at CSN.

Among the award recipients for the evening Dr. Thomas Brown was named the Lifetime Achievement Honoree and Anthony L. Gladney, Vice President of National Diversity Relations for Harrah’s Entertainment, received the Community Service Award.

Interim President Michael Richards gives the Life Time Achievement Award to Thomas Brown at the MLK Diversity Awards. Mr. Brown is Senior Advisor to the President and the Chief Campus Administrator of the Cheyenne campus and has been with CSN since its inception in 1971.

Brown has been with CSN since the College was founded in 1971 and currently serves as the Senior Advisor to the President and Chief Campus Administrator on the Cheyenne campus. During the past 37 years, he has served in a number of positions from a CSN instructor to CSN Acting President. He’s played an integral role in the development of the College and the Las Vegas community. He has held such prestigious civic positions as city councilman, mayor pro-tem, a member of the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, North Las Vegas Chamber of Chapter of the Salvation Army and a member and board member of the Urban chamber of Commerce for a number of years.

“I’ve had the opportunity to see a lot of students pass through these doors and I have had the opportunity to meet a lot of faculty,” Brown said. “I really find the College has done me a favor rather than the other way around.”

Gladney is currently responsible for assisting with the implementation of the diversity initiative of Harrah’s Entertainment Inc. He is also chief liaison officer for the company’s strategic partner relations locally, regionally and nationally.

Students from The View student group, which promotes cultural awareness, receive the Organization Excellence Award at the MLK Diversity Awards in February.

A former player and team captain for the San Francisco 49ers, Gladney is a University of Nevada, Las Vegas graduate and served as one of the youngest administrators in the country while working as director of multicultural student affairs for UNLV.

“This gentleman has the ability to organize and commute the community,” said Larry Mason, Interim Vice President of Diversity & Inclusion, who presented Gladney with the award.

Gladney told the audience of about 60 people he was humbled and honored.

Many other college students and staff were recognized at the event for their commitment to diversity.

Student Government Secretary, RaQuan Snead, received the award for student excellence for his many commitments to the community, in spite of his incredibly busy lifestyle.

“He manages to maintain a high level of excellence while working full time on the graveyard shift, living on his own and taking five classes,” said Student Body President Taylor Gray, who presented him with the award.

CSN student Victoria Pate also received an award for student excellence. Pate is an extraordinarily busy student involved in a number of student activities, including The View, which received the Organization Excellence Award that night. The View is a cultural awareness group started and run by students. Pate has also participated in campus food drives, poetry slams and is head of the Black Student Association.

Dr. Carlos Campo, Interim Vice President of Academic Affairs, was recognized at the event with the Administrator Excellence Award for his coordination of many events, including his work to create the Future College Student Day and the Black Book Bonanza. The Future College Student Day allows elementary school students to attend CSN “mini” sessions and the program is designed to acclimate students at a young age toward the idea of a college education.

Jan Kramer also received the Staff Excellence Award for her work as a Director of Health Sciences. She has worked on the Faculty Cultural Awareness Project, which helps to familiarize nursing faculty with many of the cultural backgrounds of our diverse student body and faculty. She has also been involved with the cultural immersion of faculty and students in collaboration with Universidad Autonomo de Guadalajara (UAG.) This program exposes a cohort of CSN students to the practices, health care arena and language in a medical setting in Guadalajara.

Dr. Earnest N. Bracey received the Faculty Excellence Award. Dr. Bracey attended the Oxford Round Table, regarding Diversity in Oxford, England, in 2005. His publications in professional journals include “Dominant Cultures and Indigenous Populations” and “The Peoples of Las Vegas: One City, Many Faces.” He was also the founding member of the National Campaign for Tolerance in 2002.

Dr. Arnold C. Lyerly was also a recipient of the Faculty Excellence Award. Dr. Lyerly teaches in the Criminal Justice and Human Services programs. During the last 35 years his efforts in the area of education and training have brought him into contact with approximately 25,000 people. And he has served as department chair for Public Safety and Human Services, a member of the Faculty Senate and president of the senate.

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CSN Celebrates Women’s History Month

When Professor Linda Foreman clicked on the picture of the bikini clad model, students stared in awe as they saw the model’s smooth face convert to a porous surface with wrinkles and sags under the eyes.

With a click of her mouse, Professor Foreman showed how the model’s abdominal muscles had been digitally altered to cover up love handles and how the model’s thighs had been digitally doctored to cover cellulite.
“Oh my gosh,” one student in Foreman’s Women's Studies, WMST113 Race, Class and Gender course, exclaimed.

As part of CSN’s celebration of Women’s History Month, Foreman, of the Human Behavior Department, opened up her class to the public and campus to give a lecture on “Women in the Media.”

The startling discussion focused on how the public is overwhelmed with deleterious images of women and aimed to expose and unveil these images so students and audience members could see the message behind the billion-dollar advertisement industry, the media and even children’s programming.

Take “Winnie the Pooh,” Foreman urged. Kanga the Kangaroo is the sole female character in the popular children’s series. But Kanga has a very narrow and motherly role, Foreman said.

“We have in our society images regularly teaching us there is male domination,” she said.

Her lecture also focused on images in society portraying white supremacy. Foreman showed Kiri Davis’ documentary “A Girl like Me,” which displayed young black women discussing how they grew up believing they were ugly because they were not white. The documentary also displays an experiment of young black children comparing white and black dolls, and shows these young children selecting the white doll as the “good” doll, or the “beautiful” doll. Fifteen out of 20 children preferred the white doll, Davis says in the film.
“It really raises the question of where do these kids get these ideas of white is right?” Foreman said.

Foreman’s student Erika Sims also gave a lecture during the discussion about the societal stereotypes women must break through to accept themselves. “I honestly can tell you I hate my body,” she told the audience as she stood there drinking a weight loss shake.

“I’m terrified that I won’t fit into my jeans,” she said.

But she announced confidently she has stopped reading women’s magazines specifically because they encourage such negative thoughts before she launched into Power Point presentation, “Representations of the Women’s Body in Media and Society.”

Historically a voluptuous figure was the most aesthetic form for a woman, she noted.

The two-plus hour discussion that Foreman and Sims led included discussion from students in the audience that touched on the detrimental effects of showing women as less than human subjects and the motives of the company that markets Axe body spray (advertisements include thousands of bikini clad women hunting down a single male in a sort of Planet of the Apes way) and Dove (“Talk to your child before the beauty industry does” commercials supporting the Dove Self-Esteem Fund.)

The solution, Foreman suggested, might be to create realistic images of women in media and measuring women on anything other than beauty, she said, adding that the typical woman in America is five feet and four inches tall, 140 pounds and a size 14.

Being bombarded with images of size zero women, often depicted half dead, battered, or in an animalistic pose impacts everyone – even those who believe they are not affected by advertisements, she said. And those images have consequences, Foreman said.

Locally, the sexiness of Las Vegas, might have some correlation to the City of Las Vegas’ highest teen pregnancy rate in the nation, she said.

Alternatively, such ads are “creating an appetite for women that don’t even exist.”

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March Classified Employee of the Month

The following classified employee has been honored as Outstanding Classified Employee of the Month for February. The recipient was nominated by fellow members of the College for her outstanding service and received $200, a designated parking spot as well as recognition on a plaque on all three campuses.

Annette Lanzo: Administrative Assistant II, Health Related Professions

Annette Lanzo is the administrative guru of health related professions. She solves problems, does scheduling, contracts, in-state travel for employees in her department, and provides support to department Chair Robert Petrucci and also the health information technology, veterinary technology and cardio Respiratory programs. But what she enjoys most is the students.

“I like working with the students. I really enjoy knowing that so many times they’ve gone from person to person to person and when they get to me they’re frustrated and by the time they leave I make them happy. I like the position, I really do. I like the student contact. I’m a people person,” Lanzo said.
She was nominated for the award for her positive attitude and her willingness to help others, particularly students.

She is touted for her professionalism, participating in department activities and the fresh perspective that she brings to the challenges she tackles immediately in her department.

Lanzo also participates in community activities to support local charities through volunteer work with the Women of St. Joseph’s and the Women of the Moose fraternal organization.
But her real hobby is cooking.

And if you smell corned beef and cabbage in the B Building soon, Lanzo has brought some of her home made victuals to a department potluck.

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On March 7, the College of Southern Nevada awarded four students awards for excellence at the third annual Outstanding Education Student Awards event.

Full-time faculty selected the outstanding students as recognized leaders in academics, community service and for personal obstacles they have overcome in life to attend CSN.

Each recipient received a keepsake and more than $1,000 in textbooks from Pearson Education. They also received an iPod donated by R.C. Willey.

Professor Cheryl Brecheisen presented an award to Amy Ciarolla. Amy is at CSN because the College offers many evening courses, which makes going to school and working full time an option for her. She feels that the instructors in the Early Childhood Department are some of the most dedicated people she has met. She feels that the instructors at CSN are not willing to compromise their beliefs, and that they truly have children’s best interests at heart. Amy met her husband in  a CSN class and they now raise her 9-year-old son together. She has been able to finance her education with the combination of a scholarship, her own hard work, and very supportive parents. There have been several semesters where Amy went to work at 7 a.m., then attended two three-hour classes in a row.  She typically gets home around 9 p.m. or 10 p.m., does homework and goes to work the next day. Amy hopes to obtain a bachelor's degree and would also like to run her own school someday.

Dr. Joni Flowers presented Bobbie Sepulveda  with an award. Bobbie feels CSN's online environment afforded her the opportunity to continue with professional development at a time and schedule that she designated. She has been happily married for 15 years and has a 4-year- old son. Bobbie is a busy lady. She is working as a full-time teacher, she is a wife, a mom, and a full-time (14 credit hours) student all at the same time.  Her colleagues say that her work ethic is outstanding. She is a leader in the classroom and frequently goes the extra mile with her own work as well as with helping others. Bobbie is now living out her personal goals of not only teaching high school, but also teaching within the online environment.

Dr. Dale Warby presented an award to Douha Conrad. Douha will be the first in her family to earn a college
degree, and she is certain her family will be very proud of her. She has been impressed by her instructors and feels a caring teacher is what makes CSN standout. Douha came to the United States when she was 17 years old not knowing English. Her high school placed her as a freshman when she was supposed to be a senior because none of her credits back home transferred. She finished high school in three years but did not go to college right away because she had to work to save money. Now, she is at CSN, earning great
grades to prove to her family that she can earn her degree. Her goal is to get her teaching credential and possibly move back to her native country to teach the children of Lebanon.

Education Coordinator Connie Christensen presented an award to Melva Minnis. Melva said, “CSN, its instructors and support offices, form a triangular vehicle which serves to propel students from their first semester to graduation and beyond.”  She enjoys CSN’s nurturing environment and instructors who are completely dedicated to the academic and emotional well-being of their students. Melva has three wonderful grandchildren for whom she would like to set an example, teaching them that learning and the pursuit of excellence is a lifetime endeavor. Melva holds down a full-time job and is a caregiver to a spouse living with a chronic illness. These circumstances do not normally lend themselves to extra study time, but Melva is hardworking, committed and always ready to share words of wisdom and encouragement. She will teach special education after receiving her degree.

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