Topic: College of Communication Information and Media

April 10, 2008

Ball State's student-run newspaper was again a big winner at this year's Gold Crown Awards, given out annually by the Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA).

For the ninth consecutive year, The Ball State Daily News received Gold Crown awards, the organization's top honor, in the college newspaper division of the competition. The Daily News was the only newspaper this year to win two Gold Crowns at the awards ceremony.

Publications were judged on writing, editing, design, content, concept, photography, art and graphics. More than 1,800 college publications were submitted for consideration.

The Daily News staff also won 64 Gold Circles, the most received by any college in the country. This year's total bests the paper's previous record-setting total of 57 awards in 2007. The Gold Circle Awards ceremony is CSPA's annual competition for individual achievement by student writers, editors, designers and photographers. The program attracted nearly 12,000 entries from colleges, universities and secondary schools throughout the country.

This year, the Daily News also won two special citation awards for the staff's dominance in the design category contest.

"These awards are the hallmark of college journalism and very few schools receive these recognitions. That we were the only paper that received two Gold Crowns this year says a great deal about these students and this program," said Vince Filak, a journalism professor and adviser to the Daily News. "On a daily basis, these students do a phenomenal job of informing the students, faculty and staff about important information that matters to this campus. It was gratifying to see the judges react to that and give these students their just rewards."

The newspaper staff was honored March 16-18 at the annual College Media Advisers/Columbia Scholastic Press Association's 25th Gold Circle Awards program in New York.

The CSPA is an international student press association uniting student journalists and faculty advisers at schools and colleges through educational conferences, idea exchanges and award programs.  The program is owned by Columbia University and operated as a program of its journalism graduate school.
A complete list of awards can be found at www.columbia.edu/cu/cspa/ under "2008 Crown awards."

By Gail Werner, News Center/Update Editor