Germanic Languages and Literatures

Four University of Toronto projects have the golden touch and six others are worthy of acclaim, say judges in the Accolades Awards competition sponsored by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), District II.

The Council for Advancement and Support of Education is a professional association serving educational institutions and the advancement professionals who work on their behalf in alumni relations, communications, development, marketing and allied areas. District II, the largest of the organization’s eight districts, includes communications and advancement professionals from post-secondary institutions in Ontario; New York; New Jersey; Pennsylvania; Washington, D.C.; Delaware; Maryland; West Virginia and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Its Accolades Awards are given out annually.

“It is gratifying to see the breadth and depth of our communications and alumni relations efforts so well represented in the CASE District II Awards,” said Michael Kurts, assistant vice-president (communications). “These awards represent the creativity and hard work of many people across our divisions, faculties and campuses.”

U of T’s gold awards were given to a mix of advancement and communications projects. The University of Toronto Scarborough earned gold for best practices in alumni relations with its program Hire Power: Strategies for Keeping and Finding Work. This program, jointly created by UTSC’s Academic Advising and Career Centre and its development and alumni relations office, offered new graduates four days of workshops focused on key job search and “survival” skills such as interviewing and financial literacy.

U of T’s Gateflo Flow Chart also received an honourable mention in this category. These informational advertisements about the university projects funded through its Affinity Partners Program for alumni were the work of the advancement and marketing communications group in the Division of University Advancement.

Dotted Lines, a series of advertisements created by advancement and marketing communications group in the Division of University Advancement, is another gold award winner, this in the special projects category. These ads, created for U of T’s office of corporate foundations and relations to encourage alumni to participate in affinity programs (insurance, credit cards, etc.), ran in the U of T Magazine.

The U of T Magazine itself earned a gold award in the best article category for The Aviator, Alec Scott’s story about alumnus Douglas McCurdy, the first person to fly an airplane out of the sight of land. The magazine has a tradition of winning CASE II awards for its writing, and it also received this year’s bronze award and an honourable mention. In her bronze award piece Understanding Autism, writer Marcia Kaye looked at the work done by researcher Stephen Scherer to unravel this mystery. Managing editor Stacey Gibson earned an honourable mention for her piece on factory farms, This Looks Like a Farm.

Last, but not least in the gold award arena, the new U of T News website was named the gold award winner in the news website category, a grouping that encompassed university news sites, as well as online media centres. The new site is modular in design, allowing it to meet the needs of various stakeholders.

U of T also garnered awards for its electronic newsletters. The Engineering Newsletter, distributed monthly by the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering, earned a silver award, and the newly redesigned Bulletin, distributed twice a week across all three campuses by Strategic Communications and Marketing, earned a bronze award.

Award winners will be honoured in January at CASE’s joint District I and District II conference in New York City.