The path to York is paved with gold and silver. The Publications and Account Direction departments in Marketing & Communications have won four medals in the 2009 North American regional Accolades Awards competition held annually by the Washington-based Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE).
Ylife, York’s daily electronic news publication for students, took gold in the Website: News category and honourable mention in the Electronic 
Newsletter category. YorkU magazine also won gold for two photographs. And the Res Race to Zero sustainability program garnered a silver for Account Direction. The entry period covered the 2008-2009 academic year. Marketing & Communications is now part of the University Relations division.
Gold-winning student news site Ylife is updated each day by Publications staffer David Fuller, based on selected stories from YFile, York’s daily electronic newsletter for faculty and staff. The award entry named Fuller, YFile editor Jenny Pitt-Clark, writers Sandra McLean and Martha Tancock, copy editor Beth Zabloski and publications director Berton Woodward. In addition to its Web presence, Ylife‘s stories are also fed automatically to the front page of York’s student portal (my.yorku.ca). Highlights are available to subscribers of a weekly e-mail.
YorkU magazine won its gold in colour photography for two shots taken by freelance photographer KC Armstrong in shoots conceived and overseen by Jamie Nixon, YorkU‘s art director. The first winning photo, published in the October 2008 issue, was of York PhD candidate Bruce Erickson (PhD ’09) and accompanied a story by Michael Todd, YorkU managing editor, about the canoe as a Canadian icon and the baggage it 
carries.
The second photo, published in the April 2009 issue, was of York Professor Susan Cash (BFA Spec. Hons. ’78, MA ’07), a dancer and choreographer. It accompanied a story by Tancock about Cash’s signature dance piece set to be featured at York’s 50th-anniversary gala celebration.
“All the members of the Publications unit are represented in these awards, which cover both our daily news team and our magazine team," says Woodward. "They are a fabulously talented group.”
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| Above: York Professor Susan Cash by KC Armstrong |
In addition, Account Direction won silver in the Marketing Programs category for the Res Race to Zero program. Account director Robin Edmison worked with a subgroup of the Yorkwise Steering Committee, including Environmental Design & Sustainability (part of Campus Services & Business Operations), Student Community & Leadership Development, the Residence Life team and student residence environmental ambassadors, in developing the program and ensuring the success of the Res Race to Zero event. The creative was designed by Kathleen Munro, graphic designer in the Account Direction unit.
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The Res Race to Zero event took place in March 2009. Residence students in each undergraduate residence building at York’s Keele campus competed to reduce their building’s energy consumption from the previous March. Weekly prizes were awarded and an overall winner chosen. The result was a 25 per cent energy reduction.
The CASE Accolades were not the only recent awards for the Publications team. YorkU, Nixon and Armstrong were also recognized in 2009 with a gold award from the Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education for a photo of Faculty of Fine Arts student costumer Adrianne Carney (BFA Spec. Hons. ’08). YorkU also won silver in an international CASE competition for best internal audience publication.
CASE is a professional association serving educational institutions and those in alumni relations, communications, development, marketing and allied areas. York is part of District II, the largest of the eight CASE districts with some 700 institutions and over 3,000 members in Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands and West Virginia.
For more information, visit the CASE Web site. To view the list of Accolades Award winners, click here.
The Accolades Awards were presented at the CASE District II annual conference in Philadelphia Feb. 7 to 9.