The recognition came during Thursday night’s XCELsior awards ceremony, but the Rainbow Pride Union’s achievements have been years in the making.

For RPU Co-Director Carlos Ali, the awards represent how far the organization has come in just the past couple of years.

“Two or three years ago, if you said the acronym RPU, no one knew who we were,” Ali said. “Now people know who we are, and I think that our winning the awards tonight showed that.”

RPU, which has doubled in both membership and budget over the past two years according to Ali, was honored as holding the best Lecture/Educational Program of the Year for its transgendered awareness month in November. It also received the Mary Richardson Foundation Award, the only award given at the event that had a monetary gift ($100) attached to it.

The Mary Richardson award, unlike other XCELsior awards, is not determined by Campus Life, but the Binghamton University Foundation. It’s given in acknowledgment of the student organization that contributed most to student life.

“A lot of [RPU’s success] has to do with the Executive Board that we had on last year, I kind of just took over the steam,” Ali said. “A lot of it has to do with the fact that we have outstanding support from not only the administration as far as Lois DeFleur, but support from the entire Student Association itself.”