Texas Woman’s University brought home gold and silver in the CASE (Council for Advancement and Support of Education) 2021 Circle of Excellence Awards. The peer-selected and adjudicated awards honor institutions worldwide whose staff have advanced their organizations through their resourcefulness and ingenuity.

Winners were selected based on several factors, including overall quality, innovation, use of resources and the impact on the institution or its external and internal communities such as alumni, parents, students, faculty and staff.

TWU’s 2020 drive-thru commencement at Texas Motor Speedway won gold in the special events/in-person – multi-day events category. Judges stated the event “wasn’t just ‘uniquely Texas,’ but unique in general.” The award page on the CASE announcements site includes a video featuring TWU mascot Oakley at the speedway.

TWU’s holiday video won silver in the video/general information videos – short category. The video featured Oakley and faculty, staff and students from all three campuses passing a string of holiday lights to each other. Judges wrote: “The collaboration between multiple units, the 15% increase in subscribers, and the creativity amid a low budget impressed us.”

Teams of people across the university contributed to the success of both the drive-thru commencement and the making of the holiday video.

CASE received almost 3,000 entries from 27 countries this year. Entries came from 530 institutions across 100 categories. For more information about CASE, visit case.org.