York University wins two awards for presidential communications

The switch to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic was full of hiccups for higher education institutions. Then, after two years of isolation and anxiety, welcoming students back to campus brought its own challenges. The President’s Office at York University was acutely aware of the need to handle the transition with sensitivity.

In the institution’s 2022-23 President’s Welcome Back video, president Rhonda Lenton welcomed students to campus without shying away from discussing the effects of the pandemic, but in a way that emphasized its positive outcomes.

“We wanted to frame it in a positive way that called to attention not only physically coming back together, but also the ways in which over the last two years, we were actually connected more than ever,” says Madeleine Laforest, social media and communications planning specialist in the President’s Office.

Laforest and her team sought to highlight how the pandemic taught us that we can achieve anything with the power of our connections, despite our physical separation. They represented this sense of unity by including diverse members of York’s student community in the video, including those of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds as well as masked individuals.

“We wanted to make sure we were inclusive of people with different comfort levels around returning to campus. So we included masked individuals to represent that aspect of the current reality,” Laforest says.

Connection was important in every aspect of the video’s creation, from the script to the production process and the different video clips. For the video shoot, Laforest’s team organized an intimate reception at the Tait McKenzie Centre for students, faculty and staff to join president Lenton in delivering her final words.

“That one was really important to me,” she says, “to kind of live and breathe that word “connection” by showing the actual faces of the peers of the York community.”

This same sentiment is reflected in York’s 2022 President’s Annual Report, a digital microsite highlighting York’s accomplishments in fostering excellence, progressiveness, sustainability, social justice and equity, and diversity and inclusion. Laforest said it involved the collaboration of several communications, marketing, social media and translation staff members.

“The experience we were aiming for was to instill a sense of pride and raise awareness about our accomplishments from the past year, and to really reinforce our commitment to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals,” Laforest says.

Keeping with York’s commitment to being recognized as a global leader in sustainability, Laforest’s team produced the report in digital format only. She says the office began dialling back on print reports during the pandemic, and went completely digital in 2022.

The President’s Welcome Back Video and President’s Annual Report were both winners of International Association of Business Communicators – Toronto Chapter’s 2023 Ovation Awards for communications excellence in the audio/visual and publication categories, respectively.

“It was a great feeling,” says Laforest about the wins. “It’s great to step back and acknowledge and appreciate the work you’ve accomplished. It leaves you with a sense of pride and inspiration for the next iteration of them to make it even more impactful because it really shows that it gets across to the audience.”