University takes top award in Internet contest

The University of Virginia took the top spot in the first ever Eddie Bauer Commencement Cup Challenge/Graduation 2000. Eddie Bauer and the Yahoo! Careers Web site recently joined forces to hold the Commencement Challenge, which encouraged students, alumni and college fans to vote for their favorite university. The first prize -- a live web broadcast of graduation ceremonies on Yahoo!.com -- went to the three colleges with the most votes.

There were nine winning colleges and universities, three each at gold, silver and bronze levels.

In addition to U.Va., gold-cup winners were Texas Tech University and Seattle Pacific University. Silver winners -- Purdue, Stanford and Baylor universities -- will receive live audio-only webcast, plus an archive of the video. Bronze winners -- Washington State, Clemson, and Arizona State universities -- will receive an on-demand video archive.

U.Va.'s Finals ceremonies will be broadcast live May 21 beginning at 10 a.m. For information about graduation, see the Finals Web site. For information about the contest, visit the Eddie Bauer Graduation 2000 site at http://webevents.broadcast.com/eddiebauer/voting0400/winners.asp. Official totals of the voting are not yet available.