Before an audience of their peers, staff members from the University’s communications and development offices captured three Chancellor’s Excellence Awards at the annual University of Texas System Seminar Nov. 11 in Austin.


The Office of Communications won awards for Outstanding Communications Efforts and Outstanding Media Relations Efforts and the Office of Development won Outstanding Fundraising-Academic.


UT Dallas shared the best communications prize with UT San Antonio. The UT Dallas entry drew praise from the judges for the creativity and breadth of materials created for the GEMS program. The eight-week campaign took the prize for generating campus-wide awareness about the Gateways to Excellence in Math and Science program in advance of a visit by reaccreditation evaluators.


Statewide coverage of the Comet Connection, achieved by strategically placing news stories with key messages in most of the 52 Texas cities with agreements between local community colleges and the University, was singled out for the best media relations effort.


Hard numbers earned development officers the award for excellence in fundraising. Of the nine universities in the UT System, UT Dallas saw the greatest change in overall fund-raising performance from 2006 to 2007. During that period, the University increased giving by 102 percent, from $16.6 million to $33.5 million, according to the Council for Aid to Education.


A total of seven Chancellor’s Excellence Awards were bestowed at the seminar. In addition to UT San Antonio and UT Dallas, other system campuses recognized include The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, UT M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and UT Health Science Center at Houston.


The UT System Seminar is a two-day business meeting that brings together chief fundraisers and marketing and public relations professionals from throughout the System’s universities and health care institutions.


Media Contacts: Meredith Dickenson, UT Dallas, (972) 883-2293, meredith.dickenson@utdallaas.edu
or the Office of Media Relations, UT Dallas, (972) 883-2155, newscenter@utdallas.edu





Above: The GEMS communication campaign included logos designed by Office of Communications marketing division staff members and a special online game called BeGemmed.

Below: The Office of Communications was also lauded for its campaign to promote Comet Connection agreements with community colleges.