MSU's Residence Halls Association came home with some hardware from the Michigan Organization of Residence Hall Associations conference held over spring break.

RHA won the Focus on Diversity Award and the Best Banner in the large school category. President Derek Wallbank, Spectrum representative Katie Boatman and Campbell Hall representative Josh Rabinowitz also gave presentations at the conference held at Western Michigan University.

Ernest Drake, RHA's director of racial ethnic and progressive affairs and president-elect, said he feels proud to have won the diversity award.

"We were not only concentrating on programs, we were concentrating on making the campus a better place for all students," Drake said, adding that RHA also worked with administrators, something many other schools did not do.

Cory Rose, Michigan organization communications coordinator, said every school at the conference brings a banner for judging.

"We wanted to focus on a lot of things that are strong at MSU: athletics, diversity," he said. The theme for the banner was "MSU: Strength is more than just muscle."

Boatman's presentation, called "Diversity Unmasked," is something she has done in past Spectrum meetings. Spectrum is the East Complex lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender and straight ally caucus.

"It's a really good icebreaker that residence hall mentors could do right at the beginning of the year," she said.

Rose and National Communications Coordinator April Bennett are in charge of bidding to host conferences.

Rose said RHA still might bid to host the conference of the National Association of College and University Residence Halls in 2005.