John Patrick
Assistant Editor
In an impressive display of academic and journalistic aptitude, the Campus Times pummeled the competition at a recent Society of Professional Journalists awards ceremony.
Not only did the Campus Times take first place in the Best College Newspaper 2003 category and tie for the Sweepstakes Award – (won by Kenneth Todd Ruiz), which recognizes the most decorated student journalist – but also brought home big wins in five other categories.
In the category of Best Feature Story, Ruiz took first place for his feature story titled “Professors React to Online Ratings.” Third place in the same category went to Rima Thompson in recognition of her “Demystifying Dyslexia.”
Antonette Manabat and Alejandra Molina took first and third place respectively for their stories titled “Kohlhof Finds Stability in Basketball” and “ULV Considers Gender Equality.”
“Getting Cyber-connected” and “Cinema Shrouds Sex With Violence” secured first and third place in the Best Column category for Taylor Kingsbury, while Amanda Stutevoss’ “My Cups Runneth Over” earned her second place.
This semester’s editor-in-chief Chrissy Zehrbach, won second place in the Best Editorial category for her piece titled “Drinking Fine: Guilty By Location.”
Lastly, in the Best News Story category, the Campus Times took both second and third place, with Ruiz, Paulson and Bailey Porter receiving second place for their coverage of the governor’s recall election; and third place going to Paulson, Ruiz and Zehrbach for their coverage of the Southern California wildfires.
In addition to these prestigious awards, Porter received a competitive scholarship, which was created for a talented ULV student out of gratitude for La Verne’s hosting of the Inland Southern California Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists’ winter conference.
The February conference was coordinated by Campus Times Adviser and Assistant Professor of Journalism Elizabeth Zwerling.
According to Zehrbach: “There were very few schools that won awards, so we were just cheering for our team over and over.”
Added Ruiz: “La Verne really hit a grand slam at the SPJ banquet.”
“It was really validating for my two years of work at ULV,” said Ruiz, who is currently working at the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin as a copy editor.
“It tied a nice ribbon on the three semesters I spent on the Campus Times and the La Verne Magazine,” Ruiz said.
Zwerling was also very pleased with the results.
“We won second place in 2000 and we won first place in 2003. It’s a nice confirmation that what we’re doing here is working,” Zwerling said.
John Patrick can be reached jpatrick@ulv.edu.
Journalism operations manager at the University of La Verne. Production manager and business manager of the Campus Times.