Winners and highlights of the night.
Even in tumultuous times, student organizations play a vital role on campus, fostering community engagement, building career connections, organizing social events and strengthening connections between faculty and the student body. The University of Tulsa’s annual Student Org Awards are meant to reward the efforts of those high achievers with both recognition and, more importantly, free food. The 2026 awards ceremony took place on Wednesday, April 8 in the Student Union’s Great Hall. The event was packed, so much so that the organizers needed to bring out extra chairs to seat all attendees, and its atmosphere was talkative and cheerful. Given the nature of its attendees, one could expect no less.
Doors opened at 6 p.m., and the presentation began at 6:30 p.m. The ceremony was interposed twice with a raffle but, but otherwise, went briskly and wrapped up at 6:50 p.m. There were seven awards given: Amazing Executive Team, Best New Org of the Year, the Community Engagement Award, Best Individual Event, Best Collaborative Event, Org Leader of the Year and Org of the Year, in that order.
Winners:
Amazing Executive Team
The Amazing Executive Team award went to the Reformed University Fellowship. This organization has survived several hardships this school year and come out just as strong a presence, if not stronger.
Best New Org of the Year
The Chaos, TU’s official student section, won this award. Their win was attributed to their success in stirring up school spirit, supporting TU’s athletics, and their overall success in meeting their lofty aspirations despite being brand-new.
Community Engagement Award
The Vietnamese Student Association won the Community Engagement Award. This wasn’t a surprise given the quantity and quality of events, fundraising and outreach the VSA has organized either alone or in collaboration with other organizations in the past year.
Best Individual Event of the Year
The Best Individual Event award was won by the TU Theatre Union for their performances of the classic tragedy “Oedipus the King” last fall. Their performance succeeded not just because of student camaraderie but also because of TUTU’s highly professional execution.
The Student Org Awards is an annual ceremony organized by SGA to recognize the role of student organizations on campus. Photo by Nathan Mister
Best Collaborative Event of the Year
The Best Collaborative Event award went to the Lunar New Year Festival, a massive gathering organized through the combined efforts of the Asian-American Student Association, the Chinese Students and Scholars Association, the Korean Student Association, and the VSA.
Org Leader of the Year
The highly prolific Jaydn Fording won the Org Leader of the Year award for their work as president of TUTU. They are also notably both director and composer of the aforementioned fall play and director of last weekend’s performances of The Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. They are also involved with the Wesley Foundation and TU’s Queer Media Club.
Org of the Year
Student Org of the Year was awarded to the TU Psychology Club, which regularly hosts guest speakers, discussions, educational events, and networking events for psychology majors and dabblers alike. Reflecting on the club’s success, president Carter Johansen said, “I’m really proud of what we’ve done this year, and I’m excited to keep going.” Interested students can attend their next weekly Information Exchange event on April 15 from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m.
