By THE DAILY NEWS STAFF

The Black Community Services Center (BCSC) recognized dedicated students, faculty and staff on Friday at the Annual Academic and Community Awards. The community portion of the ceremony — which was initiated about 25 years ago — honored students for their work both inside and outside of the classroom, while the academic awards recognized students for exceptional academic achievement.

Community award winners were chosen by a committee of BCSC students after receiving an online nomination.

“The variety of committee members offers a diverse perspective of who should be winning the awards,” said committee head and event coordinator Brittany Clark ‘08.

Winners of the academic awards were chosen based on grade point average (GPA). Students with a GPA between 3.5 and 3.75 received “superior” recognition, while those with a GPA higher than 3.75 received “exceptional” recognition.

The community awards’ creators — including Bernard Coley JD/MBA ‘76, Hal Black ‘87, Greg Crossfield ‘86, Morris Graces and Tina Gridiron-Smith, Ph.D. ‘04 — also received visionary awards at the ceremony. Psychiatry Prof. William Dement received the legacy award for his work with black students in the 1970s, when he served as the resident fellow in Cedro. Other legacy award winners included Yemi Ajirotutu ‘07, Kirby Bumpus ‘08, LaTasha Crow ‘07, Kimon Ioannides ‘07, Macarrin Morton ‘07 and Kiah Williams ‘07 for their work in Ujamaa, the African-American theme dorm, and in the black community at Stanford.

“Over the years the ceremony has grown from 50 people to 600,” Clark said. “It is one of the largest events of the black community here at Stanford.”