Lawrence University’s weekly video of the people and programs that make the college distinctive has been recognized with a 2010 Circle of Excellence Award by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) District V.
The “This is Lawrence” video series received a silver award in the best practices in alumni relations category for colleges and universities with less than 3,000 students. The CASE Circle of Excellence Awards honor innovative and effective programs and projects in nearly 50 categories, including fundraising, alumni relations, advancement services programs and publication/web design.
The series grew out of a pair of on-campus student video contests, the first conducted in the spring of 2008 to produce a promotional piece to be used with Lawrence’s $150 million “More Light” capital campaign. A second contest, in the spring of 2009, promoted sustainability initiatives at Lawrence.
The weekly, two-minute videos highlight distinguished facets of Lawrence. They are distributed to approximately 15,000 members of the Lawrence community, including faculty, staff, students, alumni and friends of the college. TIL videos have featured topics ranging from Bobby McFerrin’s performance of Professor Fred Sturm’s composition “Migrations” to a behind-the-scenes look of a theatre production to an astrophysics lesson on the sidewalk.
“We are thrilled to be recognized by CASE for the ‘This is Lawrence’ video series,” said Cal Husmann vice president for development and alumni relations. “It has been a terrific and fun way to engage our alumni, parents, friends, students, and prospective students while reinforcing the many ways in which Lawrence’s mission is being realized in the lives of our students. We aren’t aware of any other colleges or universities using video in this fashion, so it is exciting to be a pioneer in this regard.”
Alex Bunke, a 2009 Lawrence graduate and winner of the first video contest, served as the original creator/producer of the series and was later joined by Rachel Crowl, web content and new media coordinator. Crowl, in conjunction with videographer Danny Ceballos, currently produce the series. Nearly 75 videos have been produced for the series.
Winners of the Circle of Excellence Awards will be recognized Dec. 12-14 at the 36th annual CASE V conference in Chicago. District V includes institutions in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota and Ohio.
