Contact: Jennifer Rees , (512) 499-4409

Date: May 20, 2004

UT System News Release

The University Continuing Education Association has presented its Gayle B. Childs Leadership Award to Dr. Darcy W. Hardy, assistant vice chancellor for academic affairs and director of the UT TeleCampus.

The national award is presented to one individual annually who has shown long term leadership, scholarship and applied contributions to the field of distance education throughout his or her career. The award is one of the oldest UCEA confers and the highest awarded an individual.

The award is named for Gayle B. Childs. Through speeches, scholarly articles, and his educational leadership throughout his distinguished career, Professor Childs argued the need for more basic research in the field of distance education.

Hardy has been a leader in distance education for more than 15 years and led the development and delivery of the UTTC. She is a nationally recognized keynote speaker and president of the U.S. Distance Learning Association. She was a founding member of the Texas Distance Learning Association.

Under her leadership, UTTC was established in 1998. It provides service-driven centralized support for online education among the University of Texas System's 15 universities and health science centers.

The UT TeleCampus offers online undergraduate and graduate college credit courses, professional development, and K-12 TAKS readiness programs, in addition to an array of support services for students and faculty. UTTC serves primarily Texans but also attracts a worldwide audience of learners.

The University of Texas System has 15 campuses, including nine academic and six health institutions, an enrollment exceeding 177,000 students, more than 87,000 employees, and an annual operating budget of $7.8 billion. The UT System confers one-third of the state's undergraduate degrees and educates three-fourths of the state's health care professionals annually.

The UT System: http://www.utsystem.edu

The UT TeleCampus: http://www.telecampus.utsystem.edu

Dr. Darcy W. Hardy vitae: http://www.telecampus.utsystem.edu/index.cfm/4,1110,html

University Continuing Education Association: http://www.ucea.edu/