by Stacey Mleczko
Staff Writer
It is no wonder why University of La Verne enrollment is increasing every year.
Last year, the men’s volleyball team brought attention to La Verne with its National Championship. Last semester, the ULV debate team gained international recognition by ranking second in the world. And just last month, the Communications Department ran away with the awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and the California Intercollegiate Press Association (CIPA).
This year, the CIPA Convention was hosted by ULV April 13-15.
“No one knew who we were or where we were. We chose to host the convention because we decided we could do it better than any school has so far. We were upset with how it was run last year. We knew we could show them how to host it. I think we did that. We did a really good job,” said senior journalism major and On-Site Vice President Araceli Esparza.
La Verne challenged approximately 150 students from 14 universities statewide in different areas of mass communication. In the end, La Verne made headlines.
ULV ranked second in weekly newspapers for the publication of the Campus Times, defeated only by UC San Diego’s The Guardian. La Verne surpassed neighbor Cal State Fullerton to place second in the television sweepstakes for the broadcasting of LVTV. ULV took third place in the magazine sweepstakes for the production of the La Verne Magazine and third again for general excellence.
“It’s a pretty big deal that we compete with all kinds of school from around the state,” said convention participant and coordinator Brice Nixon.
Among the 14 participating four-year universities were schools like UCLA, UC Santa Barbara and UC Berkeley. California State universities such as San Diego, Humboldt and Northridge were also in attendance and private opponents included ULV rival Cal Lutheran.
Despite La Verne’s size difference, the Leopards prevailed against many dominant universities and reputations.
“[ULV’s victories] say a lot [about La Verne] because all the other schools like Cal State Los Angeles and UC Irvine are so big and we’re so small and we are able to maintain a quality in our paper. Every year we earn something,” said junior journalism major Jazmine Ponce. “It shows that our department can work together and help us do our job.”
Esparza recalls ULV’s past involvement in CIPA conventions and said, “We’ve always done well, but this year was really, really good.”
She says she credits the increasing number of younger students entering the program and the potential they exhibit. She also said she wanted to acknowledge those who “came in as freshman and who won awards as seniors. It shows that over the last four years we really enhanced our skills enough to be competitive with others.”
Journalism, television, radio and photography students were given the opportunity to put their work out in the real world and get results. Judges of the competition were recruited from local media organizations. Major publications, stations and broadcast channels supplied qualified professionals to vote in each category. Nixon, a sophomore journalism student and editorial director of the Campus Times proved himself to be on track to a successful career as a print journalist.
“I won four awards and it was really nice to be recognized by people who are in the business. They are where you want to be years from now, so it is encouraging to see that they read what you write and they think that it’s worthy of an award,” said Nixon, who took both first and third place in the sports game article category.
The convention presented participants with prearranged scenarios in which they were to photograph, illustrate and write about in a timely manner.
The news event consisted of a staged debate that resulted in a fight and an arrest.
Senior journalism major Allison Moore said, “I watched the news event, and I thought it was exciting. The actors played out their parts well. The fight scene actually looked real. The looks on the faces of the CIPA participants were great. They were so shocked by what was happening.”
Moore, editor in chief of La Verne Magazine and a CIPA coordinator, said, “If we had to do it again, I would make sure that we make it clear to the CIPA participants that some of the events would be staged. Some of the writers were confused about whether they should write a story about the events they witnessed or if it should be based on the fact that the event was staged.”
She also said the event was an overall success as the conference was in its entirety.
