Francine Gobert
News Editor
The Campus Times was recently awarded the Gold Medal award for overall newspaper excellence by the Columbia Scholastic Press Association – for the 12th consecutive time.
“It’s a great honor and the staff has worked hard and certainly deserves it,” said Elizabeth Zwerling, associate professor of journalism and Campus Times adviser.
“It’s a nod to the consistency of the program and training we offer our students,” Zwerling said.
The Columbia Scholastic Press Association is one of the nation’s oldest, largest and most prestigious academic journalism organizations.
“I think it’s a great honor, especially on the national level,” said Eric Borer, communications assistant. “Not just the fact that we have won it, but the fact that we have done it 12 times in a row.”
The Gold Medal award is based on a critique that offers feedback to newspapers on how they can improve.
The award is then granted to those school newspapers that display superior work as an entire staff.
The work is critiqued based on various categories including breadth and depth of coverage, editing, headlines, design and photography.
This time around the Campus Times earned its highest score to date : 996 points out of a possible 1000 points for fall semester 2006.
Zwerling has led the Campus Times to this Gold Medal each semester since she started here in fall 2001.
She said that the twelfth gold is an important milestone for the paper and hopes to continue winning, while recognizing that there is “always room for much improvement.”
Marilee Lorusso, current sports editor and former Campus Times editor in chief, said that Zwerling has always been an adviser who is open to ideas and always supports the staff in pursuing stories.
“It’s exciting to be on staff,” Lorusso said.
“There is always a group of editors that really get along with each other and help each other out,” Lorusso said.
“We want to continue to produce a quality publication every week,” said current Editor in Chief Galo Pesantes. “I want to be able to keep the (winning) tradition that is the Campus Times.”
The Columbia Scholastic Press Association is a part of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and serves students through recognizing that journalism can be a means towards broader understanding.
Francine Gobert can be reached at fgobert@ulv.edu. |
