The Office of Public Affairs and Communications (OPAC) at the University of Notre Dame has received nine national awards this summer from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), Catholic Press Association, eduStyle and the University Photographers’ Association.
- John Nagy, associate editor of Notre Dame Magazine, received a CASE gold award for best article of the year for “Shovels Ready,” a story in the Winter 2009-10 issue on a field trip by Notre Dame civil engineering students to New York City and how it prepared them to think about the state of U.S. infrastructure and possible career paths in the field.
- OPAC earned a silver award from CASE in the crisis management category for its handling of communications challenges related to President Obama receiving an honorary degree and speaking at the 2009 commencement ceremony.
- The Catholic Press Association (CPA) recognized Notre Dame Magazine with second-place honors in general excellence, observing that the publication is “beautiful to look at and flows nicely, with great photography and page design. Every element of text – from feature stories and news briefs to headlines – had a creative feel.”
- The magazine received another second-place CPA award for best magazine cover, the Spring 2009 issue on God.
- Freelance writer Patrick McGuire took first place in the CPA essay category for a story about the meaning of the Catholic imagination titled “Believing Is Seeing”.
- Terrence Keeley, a 1981 Notre Dame graduate, was awarded second place by the CPA for best essay for an article titled “The Eye of the Needle,” his personal assessment of the ethics of the Wall Street financial crisis.
- The OPAC-designed Website “Game Day,” which provides a vast array of information related to football weekends on campus, was recognized as the outstanding event-related site in the eduStyle Higher-ed Web Awards competition.
- eduStyle also honored OPAC for the best use of photography on a higher education Website for the University’s new campus tour site.
- Matt Cashore took first place in the 2010 University Photographers’ Association of America’s annual competition in the multimedia category. His winning entry, “Passage to India,” chronicled the research and service performed by Notre Dame students in Kolkata.
OPAC advances Notre Dame’s vision by providing strategic and creative communications expertise to compellingly tell the Notre Dame story to multiple audiences using traditional media and emerging technologies.