The Bush School of Government and Public Service received a Bronze Quill Award from the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Houston chapter on October 21. IABC Houston presented the Bush School an Award of Excellence for the launch of the new Bush.tamu.edu site. It is the highest-level award in its category.
“Web administrator Grant Hawkins and student worker Erin Sylve did an outstanding job conducting research for the new site and implementing its launch,” said Bush School Director of Communications Susan Robertson. “The Houston market offers steep competition for the Bronze Quill Awards. Recognition at this level is a testament to the team’s outstanding work in the redesign of the School’s website.”
The Bush School communications team successfully relaunched the Bush School website in August of 2020, completing an overhaul of the entire site. Sylve, an undergraduate student worker, began the project in September 2019. She operated without full-time web support until the hire of Hawkins in November 2019. The duo worked tirelessly on moving the website to a new platform, facing the added challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic that required Hawkins and Sylve to coordinate their efforts remotely.
By moving the website from a hard-coded, server-based site to a robust, WordPress-based content management system (CMS), Hawkins and Sylve increased usability for school administrators. In addition, they created a better experience for the approximately 2,000 new visitors per day.
The IABC Award is the second award the Bush School Communication Office has received for the website in 2021. In January, the Bush School won the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) District IV Gold Award in the category of Digital Communications > Website (Institutional).
