Today there is a shiny new plaque sitting on my desk. It’s a Pacemaker – the Pulitzer prize of college journalism.
Though the wood-mounted award is still in its protective cardboard box, at least 15 people have stopped to rub their fingers over the golden seal that indicates it is from the Associated Collegiate Press. Most of these people were excited staff members; others journalism faculty. But I’m convinced that this award is just as important for the campus community as it is in the basement of Hodges Hall.
Each year the Associated Collegiate Press and the Newspaper Association of America Foundations honors the country’s top college newspaper staffs for overall excellence in journalism. Judges from the profession look for “coverage and content, quality of writing and reporting, leadership on the opinion page, evidence of in-depth reporting, design, photography, art and graphics,” according to the organizations Web site.
The name itself implies its meaning. Pacemaker awards only are handed out to mediums that set the pace for all others in the field. This year, The Reveille was one of 23 nationwide newspaper recipients from a pool of around 300 other college newspapers.
For The Reveille’s readers, the award is a tangible reminder of the staff’s commitment to both excellent reporting and complete campus coverage. Just like the 2002 Sudler Trophy reminded the crowd in Tiger Stadium that the Golden Band from Tigerland excelled among marching bands, the Pacemaker is evidence of The Reveille staff’s hard work.
Specifically within the past year, The Reveille did its best to inform the community about the South Louisiana serial killer. Coverage lead to a town hall meeting where the campus had a chance to tell officials how it felt. Community feedback also opened our eyes to the need for multi-cultural training on staff. Besides the training done in our office, The Reveille also is now working to have reporters teach different areas of campus how The Reveille can best serve them.
Readers who have seen newspapers at few other colleges may be take the staffs’ work for granted. Even for the staff, long hours to get just a little better information sometimes happens subconsciously. So to me a Pacemaker award is a testiment to both us and the campus of how The Reveille’s newsroom should and does work.
I am proud of the extra time we spend reporting and photographing campus. I am proud of the effort we put in to developing relationships with the people in our community. For a group of about 70 full time students, it sometimes is hard to live up to standards set by professional media. No newspaper is perfect. Meeting the standards of our educated readers sometimes is more difficult. No newspaper can capture every student’s voice or be as informative as every professor. However, the Pacemaker judges have recognized The Reveille’s strive for excellence. I encourage The Reveille’s readers to be proud as well.
Students now expect and should continue to expect The Reveille to deliver quality journalism, similar to what a newspaper like the Washington Post or Dallas Morning News might produce on a college level. My staff may see the award as an honor. I view The Reveille’s Pacemaker as a motivator for better work in the future. I encourage readers to hold us to that challenge.