McGill leads the country in CCAE awards
McGill's writers, editors, alumni relations staff, fundraisers and Web developers have combined to help the University win more awards from the Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education than any other institution of higher learning in the country.
The CCAE announced today that McGill has received 10 awards, including four Gold, in the organization's annual Prix d'Excellence competition. The CCAE is a national organization that awards the best efforts of university professionals engaged in various types of outreach work for their respective institutions — everything from student recruitment and promotional brochures to fundraising campaigns and press conferences.
McGill's homepage, the McGill Gateway, won the Gold Award for Best Institutional Homepage on the World Wide Web. CCAE judges praised the website as "easy to navigate" and for its "confident" design and "high quality" photography. The Gateway home page is designed by Web Communications Group information architect Eric Smith and maintained by the WCG, including manager Karl Jarosiewicz, system administrator Chris Murtagh, web editor Jane Jackel, French language editor André Cantin, programmers Michael Pereira and Stephane Daury, and web developers Marci Denesiuk and Anthony Seaberg. Photography is provided by Claudio Calligaris.
The McGill News, McGill's alumni magazine, earned three writing prizes, including two Gold Awards. Senior communications officer Daniel McCabe won gold for Best English Writing for a feature about three distinguished graduates of the School of Architecture — Arthur Erickson, Raymond Moriyama and Moshe Safdie. Freelance writer Patrick McDonagh received gold in the category of Best Article on a Subject Related to University Research in Natural Science and Engineering, for a story he wrote about McGill's nanoscientists and their research efforts. Communications associate Helen Dyer earned a Bronze Award in the category of Best Article on a Topic of Human Interest, for her piece on architecture professor Robert Mellin's involvement in heritage efforts in Tilting, a tiny coastal Newfoundland village. The McGill News is edited by Diana Grier Ayton. Andrew Mullins is the magazine's associate editor.
The Reporter, McGill's staff and faculty newspaper, received two writing prizes. Associate editor Mark Reynolds won a Silver Award for Best English Writing, for a story about iSun, the McGill solar car, and the students who built and race it.
Reynolds also earned a Bronze Award in the category of Best Article on a Subject Related to University Research in Natural Science and Engineering, for a story he penned about psychology professor Jeffrey Mogil's research on how a gene that is often responsible for crimson locks also affects the way many redheaded women process a certain kind of pain medication. The Reporter is edited by Maeve Haldane.
Senior communications officer Vivian Lewin played a role in three award-winning efforts for McGill. Together with freelance designer Gerry L'Orange, Lewin received a Gold Award in the category of Best Flyer for "Open to the World: Macdonald Library and Learning Centre." The flyer outlined Macdonald Campus's ambitious plans for redesigning and improving its library facilities.
Lewin, Alumni/Annual Fund director Wendy Corn and designers from McGill's Instructional Communications Centre earned a Silver Award in the category of Best Development Program for the McGill Alma Mater Fund, which attracted over $5.5 million in gifts to McGill during the 2002/2003 academic year.
Lewin, Faculty of Music development officer Donna Williams and Don McGerrigle, executive director, principal gifts, received a Bronze Award in the Best Fundraising Proposal category for "Building the future of music," a document tailored for potential donors interested in supporting some of the Faculty of Music's future projects.
University Relations Office communications officer Sylvain-Jacques Desjardins and former McGill translator Jean-Louis Laloy earned a Silver Award for Best French News Release. The award-winning press release promoted dietetics and human nutrition professor Peter Jones and his research on a new form of cooking oil that helps people reduce their cholesterol levels. The press release helped attract the attention of Le Devoir, La Presse, Le Soleil and several other news organizations.