OSU received the Institutional Excellence Award for 2016 from the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education at the organization’s annual conference in San Francisco on March 15. The organization’s president called OSU “one of higher education’s exemplary models.” The award honors institutional leadership, curricular reform, institutional transformation and outreach. At the time of the award, OSU had been recognized nationally for four years in a row with the Higher Education Excellence in Diversity award from INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine. The OSU Office of Institutional Diversity is headed by Dr. Jason F. Kirksey, vice president of institutional diversity.

The OSU Diversity Hall of Fame was launched in 2015 to honor and celebrate progress with the induction of OSU’s first black graduate, the late Nancy Randolph Davis; founding members of Alpha Phi Alpha, the first black fraternity on campus, and Dr. Howard J. Ship, the first African American counselor at OSU.