May 7, 2008

The University of Illinois Division of Intercollegiate Athletics has been selected to receive a Diversity in Athletics Award in the category of Diversity Strategy, to be presented June 11 at the Hilton Anatole Hotel in Dallas, site of the 2008 National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) Convention.

"It is with great pleasure that we would like to recognize and congratulate the University of Illinois athletics department as one of those recognized for a Diversity in Athletics Award in the category of Diversity Strategy," Charlotte Westerhaus, Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion at the NCAA, said in a letter addressed to Ron Guenther, Director of Athletics at Illinois.

"This is a terrific honor for our department," Guenther said. "The Division of Intercollegiate Athletics has had diversity as one of its key components of the strategic plan since 1992. Our entire department is to be congratulated."

Using independent research conducted by the Laboratory for Diversity in Sport at Texas A&M and supported by the NCAA, the award winners are those that have achieved the highest total combined scores in the areas of diversity strategy, gender diversity of departmental employees, racial diversity of departmental employees, value and attitudinal diversity of departmental employees, graduation of African-American female and male student-athletes, and gender equity compliance.

For more information, contact Westerhaus at the NCAA offices at (317) 917-6222.