OSU Res-life takes regional school of the year title

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Oklahoma State University again has been named School of the Year by the Southwest Affiliate of the National Association of College and University Residence Halls. Selection for the regional honor means the university will be considered for national School of the Year, an award presented during the National Association of College and University Residence Halls conference, which will be hosted at OSU’s Stillwater campus in May.  

SWACURH’s School of the Year Award recognizes outstanding achievements on the campus level by a residence hall organization and associated groups, as well as contributions on regional and national levels. It is the highest honor a member institution can attain from the student-run organization that strives to be the comprehensive resource for residence hall programming, leadership development and improving residential life for all colleges and universities located in the states of Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas and the country of Mexico.

OSU Residential Life has now won the regional award for two consecutive years, and the competition later this year is an opportunity to add to its record number of national awards. OSU already has won the NACURH School of the Year national title more times than any other institution in the country.

Students from OSU Residential Life also recently received individual honors, including an award named after longtime OSU administrator Bob Huss, at the Southwest Association of College and University Housing Officers conference in Frisco, Texas.

Deleea Allcorn, a human development and family sciences junior from Inola, won the Gene Ward Outstanding Student Leader Award for Oklahoma. Allcorn, a Wentz Hall resident assistant, is active in NACURH and recently landed a summer internship at Valparaiso University.  

Erica Smith was awarded the Bob Huss Outstanding Graduate Student Award for Oklahoma. A third-year residence director in Wentz Hall, she also serves as the Graduate Assistant Training and Development Committee chairperson and as the Team Mentor adviser. Smith, who is from Stillwater, will graduate in May with a master’s degree in college student development.   

The Graduate Student Award was renamed at this year’s SWACUHO conference to honor Huss’s many years of service and dedication to the association, including a term as president from 1991-1992, and as director of OSU Residential Life. Huss will retire on July 1 after 23 years as director, a span that saw Residential Life grow from nine to 25 residence halls.