Press Release

CONTACT: Debra Humphreys
(202) 387-3760
E-mail: humphreys@aacu.org

Two AAC&U Web Sites Honored with Awards by the Web Marketing Association

Association Web Site Honored as “Best Publishing Web Site” and DiversityWeb Receives “Standard of Excellence” Award

Washington, DC—September 16, 2003—The Web Marketing Association announced today that it was giving two awards to the Association of American Colleges and Universities. The main site of AAC&U was awarded a “Best in Industry” award as the “Best Publishing Web Site” (www.aacu.org). DiversityWeb received a “Standard of Excellence” award (www.diversityweb.org).

The industry panel judged more than 1,000 entries on design, innovation, content, interactivity, navigation, ease of use, and use of technology. The AAC&U main site received high marks from competition judges, who remarked that, “the site contains lots of useful information” and is “easy to use.” They also praised the site for its “excellent navigation” and “great layout.” DiversityWeb was praised for “pulling together diversity resources from many different universities for academic institutions to call on for their own campus' needs.”

In this 7th annual award competition, Web sites from a wide array of fields competed with other sites within their own sectors and against an overall standard of excellence. Judges evaluated sites against an ever-increasing Internet standard and against peer sites within their own sectors.

“I am very pleased that we have gotten this recognition and very proud of our Web staff, led by our Web editor, Noreen O'Connor,” said AAC&U acting president, Caryn McTighe Musil. “AAC&U has sought to significantly improve our Web sites in recent years to better serve our members and the larger higher education community. We have made significant improvements to our sites' design and ease of use, highlighted more of our members and their educational achievements on the site, and increased dramatically the number of resources and publications available. It is gratifying to see these improvements recognized with these awards.”

The awards are announced on the Web Marketing Association's Web site. Other “Best in Industry” winners include: United States Naval Reserve (Best Government Web Site), International Fund for Animal Welfare (Best Advocacy Web Site), The Wall Street Journal Online (Best Newspaper Web Site), and Roosevelt University (Best University Web Site). Other “Standards of Excellence” winners include: The March of Dimes National, International Association for Jazz Education, National Aquarium in Baltimore, W Hotels, Sports Illustrated, Ernst and Young, among others.

To view AAC&U's award certificate and learn more about the Web Marketing Association, see www.webaward.org.

AAC&U is the leading national association devoted to advancing and strengthening liberal learning for all students, regardless of academic specialization or intended career. Since its founding in 1915, AAC&U's membership has grown to more than 1000 accredited public and private colleges and universities of every type and size.

AAC&U functions as a catalyst and facilitator, forging links among presidents, administrators, and faculty members who are engaged in institutional and curricular planning. Its mission is to reinforce the collective commitment to liberal education at both the national and local levels and to help individual institutions keep the quality of student learning at the core of their work as they evolve to meet new economic and social challenges.

Information about AAC&U membership, programs, and publications can be found at www.aacu.org.