Four IT staff and a professor at the University of Rochester were recognized with three Best of Category Awards in the 2015 Communication Awards competition hosted by the Special Interest Group on University and College Computing Services (SIGUCCS). The annual, peer-juried competition celebrates excellence in IT communications in higher education over the past year. The awards were presented at the SIGUCCS conference this month.

Sara May, Will Graver, Zachary Bokuniewicz, and Tianyi Wang took top honors in the General Service Campaign Materials category for the UR Tech Store rebranding. The judges commended their “comprehensive vision and undertaking” in developing the campus technology store’s new graphic identity and implementing it effectively across a variety of media.

May, Graver, and Wang were also recognized in the Short Promotional Video category for their creation of a video overview of campus technology for incoming students, which eased their orientation to campus life.

The top award in the Social Media category went to Graver and John Covach, Ph.D., Professor of Music and Director of the Institute for Popular Music, for the Institute’s YouTube channel. Through Covach’s vision and Graver’s video production, the YouTube channel has helped the Institute reach an international audience and increase scholarly interest in popular music.