Pam Russell
Director of Communications
CASE
+1-202-478-5680
russell@case.org

For Immediate Release
July 9, 2007

CASE Announces Recipients of 2007 Research Writing Awards

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Council for Advancement and Support of Education has named the winners of its 2007 Research Writing Awards.

The annual awards recognize published books and doctoral dissertations in each of three categories: alumni relations, communications and marketing, and fundraising.

This year’s winning entries feature compelling research on:

• Alumni donation behavior
• Changes in public higher education during the last 25 years
• Choosing Canadian graduate schools from an East-Asian perspective
• Powerful sea changes sweeping today’s institutions, including new attitudes about the role of government in education
• Institutional leadership styles
• Strategic giving among a new generation of wealthy donors

The honors are the H.S. Warwick Research Awards in Alumni Relations for Educational Advancement; the Alice L. Beeman Awards in Communications and Marketing; and the John Grenzebach Awards for Outstanding Research in Philanthropy for Educational Advancement.

CASE recognized the six authors during a July 8 luncheon at the CASE Summit for Advancement Leaders conference in Chicago. The 2007 CASE Research Writing Award winners are:

Xiaogeng Sun, assistant director of program evaluation, Anchorage School District, Anchorage, Alaska. Sun is the recipient of the H.S. Warwick Research Award for Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation for “A Multivariate Causal Model of Alumni Giving at a Midwest, Public University,” completed at the University of Nebraska. As part of his research, Sun presents a model that dissects six factors that help explain alumni donation behavior: graduation year, gender, alumni motivation, alumni experience, student relations and student extracurricular activities.

Ronald Ehrenberg, professor at Cornell University and director of the Cornell Higher Education Research Institute. Ehrenberg is the recipient of the H.S. Warwick Research Award for Outstanding Published Scholarship for his book, What’s Happening to Public Higher Education? by Prager Publishers. The book presents findings by top experts of changes during the past 25 years in public higher education, including trends in higher education finances as well as the changing nature of students.

Liang-Hsuan Chen, a lecturer in the department of management at the University of Toronto at Scarborough. Chen is the recipient of the Alice L. Beeman Award for Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation for “Choosing Canadian Graduate Schools from Afar: East-Asian Students’ Perspectives,” completed at the University of Toronto. Her dissertation examines how international graduate students use program strengths and characteristics to evaluate graduate schools in Canada.

Larry Lauer, vice chancellor of marketing and communication at Texas Christian University. Lauer is the recipient of the Alice L. Beeman Award for Outstanding Published Scholarship for Advancing Higher Education in Uncertain Times, published by CASE books. The book provides an overview and synthesis of the changes now sweeping colleges, universities and schools and encompasses many issues, including new attitudes about the role of government in education and the emerging concept of education as a competitive industry.

William Nicholson, vice president of university advancement, Coastal Carolina University. Nicholson is the recipient of the John Grenzebach Award for Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation for “Leading Where It Counts: An Investigation of the Leadership Styles and Behaviors that Define College and University Presidents as Successful Fundraisers,” completed at the University of South Carolina. Nicholson’s dissertation examines how four university and college presidents use effective leadership techniques to enhance fundraising.

Peter Frumkin, professor of public affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. Frumkin is the recipient of this year’s Grenzebach Award for Outstanding Published Scholarship for his book, Strategic Giving: The Art and Science of Philanthropy, University of Chicago Press. His book explains how a new generation of wealthy donors can build a comprehensive plan to help match their personal philanthropic goals and style with high-impact giving.

About CASE

The Council for Advancement and Support of Education is a professional association serving educational institutions and the advancement professionals who work on their behalf in alumni relations, communications, development, marketing and allied areas.

CASE was founded in 1974 and maintains headquarters in Washington, D.C., with offices in London (CASE Europe, 1994), Singapore (CASE Asia-Pacific, 2007) and Mexico City (CASE América Latina, 2011).

Today, CASE’s membership includes more than 3,600 colleges and universities, primary and secondary independent and international schools, and nonprofit organizations in 76 countries around the globe. This makes CASE one of the world’s largest nonprofit educational associations in terms of institutional membership. CASE serves more than 70,000 advancement professionals on the staffs of its member institutions and has more than 17,000 professional members on its roster.

To fulfill their missions and to meet both individual and societal needs, colleges, universities and independent schools rely on—and therefore must foster—the good will, active involvement, informed advocacy and enduring support of alumni, donors, prospective students, parents, government officials, community leaders, corporate executives, foundation officers and other external constituencies.

CASE helps its members build stronger relationships with all of these constituencies by providing relevant research, supporting growth in the profession and fostering support of education. CASE also offers a variety of advancement products and services, provides standards and an ethical framework for the profession and works with other organizations to respond to public issues of concern while promoting the importance of education worldwide.

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