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Colorado State University – Pueblo earns two awards from CASE District VI

Colorado State University – Pueblo earns two awards from CASE District VI

PUEBLO – Colorado State University – Pueblo’s Athletics and External Affairs offices earned two Gold awards from District VI of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) this week as part of its 2012 annual conference in Denver, Jan. 8-10 at the Marriott City Center.

The University earned two of 195 awards that were selected from 582 entries in 14 classifications of excellence submitted by schools in the organization’s eight-state region. Only 74 entries earned Gold designations, 65 Silver, and 56 Bronze. CASE District VI includes advancement professionals (fundraising, alumni, communications) from public and private K-12 and post-secondary schools in Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming. The University competed with schools with enrollment of less than 1,000 to those with more than 25,000 students. Individuals primarily from higher education institutions outside District VI served as judges for the competition.

The CSU-Pueblo Department of Athletics received a Gold Award in the Excellence in Educational Fundraising, Special Constituency Giving category for the success of the ThunderGals fan club. Begun in 2010, the ThunderGals raises funds for athletic scholarships and provides assistance to athletes, coaches, and the athletic department at CSU-Pueblo. In its first year, ThunderGals enrolled 72 members, who contributed $7,200 to CSU-Pueblo Athletics. Each year, the ThunderGals will be invited to four quarterly events, including Gridiron Gals luncheon, a Hoops and Handbags winter sports after-hours social and vendor fair, as well as a women’s only golf outing. The inaugural ThunderGals Open golf tournament attracted 17 teams and raised an additional $3,000.

The University earned a Gold Award in the Excellence in MultiMedia, Single Web Page for its TWOLF Portal. The TWOLF Portal is the most visited web page on the University’s website and a one-stop resource for students. The portal helps reduce the flow of emails by providing an interactive rotating announcement segment on the top of the page. Students can break down the announcements into categories and the custom made eye-catching icons keeps the page visually appealing. Students visiting the TWOLF Portal are provided with a customized weather module with live updates from the University’s on-campus weather station. Web-cams offer links to live views taken around campus.

The TWOLF Portal web page contains other vital campus information customized for the students. News and events are broken down into modules fed by RSS feeds with filters to provide students with timely pertinent information. A “Student Spotlight” gains the viewers attention by featuring classmates with special accomplishments. Quick links to other popular web resources are readily available on the page’s navigation section as are the University’s official social networking website.

Another custom designed feature is the use of a “callout” or internal advertisement on the bottom left of the page. The visually appealing graphics are updated regularly can be used in a number of ways, but most often to direct the students to other web pages with student resources such as technology help, major campus events, or announcements from the colleges.