On Oct. 7, the Michigan Press Association officially announced the winners of its College Better Newspaper Contest for the 2011-2012 school year. The Collegian received 26 awards in Division II, which rates weekly student papers statewide against each other.
Competing against such schools as Cornerstone University and Ferris State University, The Collegian submitted pieces in 12 different categories that were then judged by a committee of professional journalists. The paper swept both the News Story and Column, Review, or Blog categories as well the Front Page and Non-Front Page Design sections. It also received second place in the coveted General Excellence award, which measures the overall quality of a paper through three consecutive issues.
“Winning these MPA awards affirms our knowledge of the program’s strength,” said faculty adviser to The Collegian Maria Servold. “I’m glad our students’ work was recognized.”
Servold, who was in charge of compiling all of The Collegian’s entries for the contest, said this year’s showing was a vast improvement from last year, when The Collegian received half as many awards.
“We have a lot of outstanding writers for The Collegian,” said John Miller, director of the Dow Journalism program. “It’s nice to see talent and hard work honored this way.”