March 6, 2012 — Several University of Virginia schools, departments and affiliated groups recently won awards from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education in the organization's District III, which comprises Southeastern colleges, universities and independent schools.

The council is an international professional organization that supports the work of alumni relations, fundraising, communications and marketing personnel by offering professional development opportunities and promoting ethical standards and principles of practice.

The award winners were the Alumni Association, U.Va.'s College at Wise, the School of Law, the U.Va. Health Foundation and the prospect development department in the Office of Development and Public Affairs. The awards program received 1,078 entries from District III members in 52 categories.

The Alumni Association received five awards: three recognizing special reunion events and two for electronic communications.

The online version of the University of Virginia magazine received an award of excellence in the World Wide Web home page design and implementation category, and the magazine's e-newsletter was the grand award winner in the electronic newsletters, blogs and tabloids category.

The 2011 Black Alumni Weekend won two awards: an award of excellence in the constituency organizations programs category and a special merit award in the special events category. The weekend was the most successful black alumni reunion in U.Va. history with more than 1,500 reunion attendees.

"Celebrating the Women of the University," a weekend marking the 40th anniversary of full coeducation at U.Va. and recognizing the contributions of women throughout U.Va.'s history, received a special merit award in the constituency organizations programs category.

U.Va.'s College at Wise received a special merit award for its media relations program to publicize the opening of the U.Va.-Wise Convocation Center. The college's departments of special events, college relations and printing service organized the program.

The Law School's communications office won three awards for articles about the Innocence Project in Virginia, part of a national program that investigates wrongful conviction cases and seeks to exonerate innocent prisoners. A series on the Innocence Project Clinic's work took the grand award in the category of general news or feature story/series. Another article about one of the cases received an award of excellence, and an article about law professor Brandon Garrett's book exploring the reasons behind wrongful convictions won a special merit award.

In the electronic communications category, the U.Va. Health Foundation was awarded special merit for its 2010 end-of-year stewardship video.

The Development Office's prospect development department also won a special merit award in the advancement services category for its project on portfolio management.