CMA recognized several advisers last week at the Fall National Media Convention for their contributions to college media.
Inducted into the CMA Hall of Fame was Karen Bosley of Ocean County College, where she is the adviser of The Viking News. Karen has been at OCC for 35 of her 41 years as an educator. Most recently she has been involved in one of the biggest First Amendment battles of her career when she was dismissed by the college from advising because of content in the newspaper. She filed a lawsuit again the college, eventually reached a settlement with the college, and was reinstated as the adviser.
Three advisers received Distinguished Adviser Awards:
Nils Rosdahl, of North Idaho College, where he has advised the The Sentinel newspaper for more than 20 years, was recognized in the Two-Year Newspaper category. He has been fighting the good fight since that first year when the president of his school asked him to censor the newspaper, and he lost his job when he refused. He was reinstated by the new college president, and the students at The Sentinel have been winning awards ever since.
Valerie White has been advising student newspapers in Florida for 15 years and is currently at Florida A&M where she advises The Famaum. She received the award for Four-Year Newspaper advisers. Her publications regularly win state and national awards. She also chairs the Black College Communications Association, and recently she has assisted in mediating violations of students’ First Amendment rights at Grambling and Hampton.
John Bennett is the director of student media at the Savannah College of Art and Design and received the advising award for Four-Year Multi-Media. At Savannah, John has built from the ground up the college radio station, an online publication, a television station and an advertising design group, in addition to moving the newspaper from a bi-weekly to an award-winning weekly.
Honor Roll Awards: (these awards are presented to advisers with fewer than five years of experience)
Molly Pavlechko (Four-Year Yearbook) has advised the 300-page L’Agenda yearbook at Bucknell University since 2002. In that capacity, she has created and implemented new training and leadership programs, as well as operating, accounting and distribution procedures. The publication has also won several design awards.
Hillary Warren (Four-Year Newspaper) has advised the The Tan and Cardinal newspaper Otterbein College since 2002. During that time, the staff size has doubled, the number of people applying for editorships has tripled, writing and design workshops have been offered and students have learned computer-assistend reporting.
Vincent Filak (Four-Year Newspaper) has advised the The Ball State Daily News since 2003. According to his department chairwoman, Vince “has been able to reinvigorate the Daily News and return it to a publication that the department believes showcases the talents of our students.”
Denise Brown (Four-Year Multi-Media) has advised The Spokesman newspaper and the Promethean yearbook at Morgan State University in Baltimore and worked with WMUR radio and MSU television since 2002. She has also created opportunities for sales, marketing and business majors within the publications.
CMA also recognized Mark Goodman with the Reid Montgomery Distinguished Service Award for his 22 years as executive director of SPLC. Mark is leaving SPLC this year to become the Knight Chair in Scholastic Journalism at Kent State University. This award is presented to an individual or institution that has made an outstanding contribution to collegiate media or media advising.
The CMA board of directors also recently voted to bestow Eddie Blick with a Lifetime Membership. Eddie recently retired from Louisiana Tech, where he created and maintained the CMA listserv up until this summer.
College Media Advisers annual awards program is soliciting nominees for the 2008 class of excellence in media advising. Nominations should be made in advance of the information packets that will be mailed April 3, 2008. The information requested in the packets must be assembled and returned to the CMA awards committee by May 1, 2008. Click here for more information.
