York has won a fistful of awards in the North American regional Accolades Awards competition held annually by the Washington-based Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). York walked away as the Canadian competitor with the most awards – six in all.
"These awards are a testament to all the great efforts made by many individuals at York," said Richard Fisher, York’s chief marketing officer. "They really belong to the University as a whole."
The Publications unit snagged two golds for York. The first went to YorkU magazine in the Visual Design in Print category for its April 2007 cover showing Spencer Rice, star of TV’s "Kenny vs. Spenny". The cover was designed by James Nixon, YorkU’s art director, who also oversaw the photo shoot conducted by photographer Jeff Kirk. In their posted comments, the judges said of the cover: "Very contemporary. Compelling. Very clean. The cover concept was obviously clearly thought out and laid out in advance of the shoot, and the shoot nailed the objectives."
The second gold went to YFile and Ylife. The two publications tied for gold in the Electronic Newsletter category as the judges said they couldn’t decide between the two. This is the second consecutive year the two newsletters have captured gold awards in the competition, although last year they were in separate categories. YFile is the University’s daily electronic newsletter for faculty and staff, edited by Jenny Pitt-Clark, while Ylife is York’s weekly electronic newsletter for students, put together by David Fuller. The awards also included writer Martha Tancock and copy editor Marie Kopf. In their comments, the judges said: "Really cool sites with events, media highlights and great stories. Easy to navigate."
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The Media Relations unit received a silver award in the Excellence in News Writing category for general news stories written by media relations coordinator Janice Walls and media relations officer Melissa Hughes. The stories dealt with a York conference on motherhood, York’s involvement in the NASA Phoenix mission, a new space test facility, male/female brain patterns and students using iPods to view lectures. The judges said the stories presented the University as "forward-thinking, cutting-edge and trend-setting".
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The Account Direction unit also won silver. The viewbook 07/08 developed for York’s Recruitment & Marketing Department won in the Student Recruitment: Individual Pieces category for excellence in student handbooks. The judges said: "Great looking, well organized presentation with a lot of information. This is [a] subtly impressive design job. A good look at the things a student would want to know about most."
In the Special Events category, a bronze went to the York University Foundation for its "York to the Power of 50" campaign kick-off. The judges called the event a "creative kick-off" for the campaign with "flair, good involvement of high-profile alumni and supporters. Good branding, well executed".
An honourable mention in the Special Events category also went to the Account Direction unit for the launch and symposium for the Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on the Global Migrations of African Peoples, worked on by account director Lisa Webb. The judges said of the event: "A great cause to r.jpg)
aise institutional and community awareness. Goals reached as well as objectives."
The awards will be given out at the CASE District II Accolades Awards Gala on Jan. 28, at the annual professional conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
York is part of CASE’s largest North American division – District II – which includes 700 institutions and over 3,000 individual members from Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands and West Virginia.
For more information about CASE, click here.