IC Student Newspaper Wins Three Awards

“The Ithacan” — Ithaca College’s weekly student newspaper—has become the first paper to sweep the Associated Collegiate Press’s three highest honors. In addition to winning Newspaper and Online Pacemaker awards, “The Ithacan” took first place in the Convention Best of Show competition at the National College Media Convention in October. Given annually by the Associated Collegiate Press and the Newspaper Association of America Foundation, Pacemakers are widely regarded as “the Pulitzer Prizes of collegiate journalism.”The Pacemaker awards were for work produced during the 2005–6 academic year under editor-in-chief Elizabeth Quill ’06.“Everyone here at the paper is really proud of these awards,” said Vanessa Schneider ’07, current editor in chief. “It’s nice to have our work validated on a national level, to know that we’re doing journalism well, and doing it right. On the other hand, it’s not all about the awards. The job that we do for the community is the most important thing to us.”The Associated Collegiate Press began awarding Pacemakers in 1927. Judges base their selections on coverage and content, quality of writing and reporting, leadership on the opinion page, and evidence of in-depth reporting as well as the quality of photography, design and graphics. Begun in 1995 as Best of the Net, the Online Pacemaker competition considers design, ease of navigation, writing and editing, and graphics and interactivity. The Best of Show awards are on-site competitions. Those colleges attending the convention submit for judging one issue of their newspaper from the current school year.This latest honor marks the fourth time, and the second consecutive year, that “The Ithacan” has won a Pacemaker. The paper has been a finalist four times in the last five years.For more information, contact Keith Davis, assistant director of media relations, at (607) 274-1153 or kdavis@ithaca.edu.