By Jake Weber

ALBION, Mich. - Albion College's student newspaper, the Pleiad, continues to demonstrate excellence among its peer publications, a fact underscored by the Michigan Collegiate Press Association (MCPA). The Pleiad received seven awards, including two first-place awards, for stories and design published during the 2006-07 academic year.

The contest was open to student newspaper members of the MPA, and was cosponsored by the Michigan Collegiate Press Association, an association composed of advisers of the MPA student newspaper members.

"It's fair to say the staff has been on a hot streak -- we've had a strong staff for a few semesters straight now," said Pleiad adviser Laura Williams, a visiting assistant professor of English at Albion College. "The staff really puts a lot of sustained work into the paper. It is excellent when they get recognition!"

Williams herself was elected in September to serve a one-year term on the board of the MCPA, representing schools which, like Albion, publish a weekly newspaper. The MCPA maintains standards of campus journalism, organizes training for students and promotes professional development for media advisors.

"It's amazing to hear faculty and staff talk about how much the Pleiad has improved under Laura's time as advisor," said news editor Holly Setter.  "She is great at guiding us with our stories and layouts while requiring us to make the final decisions ourselves, which creates an amazing environment to learn and work in."

The Pleiad has won a number of Division II (weekly publications) MPA recognition awards over the past three years, with strong placements in numerous categories. For the 2005-06 year, Pleiad business manager Maria Stella won "Student Manager of the Year," beating students from all three competitive divisions for the singular honor.

The newspapers competed in one of three divisions: Division I comprised of papers publishing more than weekly; Division II, papers publishing weekly; and Division III, two-year college publications or schools publishing less than weekly. Entries included editorial content, design, photos, general excellence, advertising sections as well as online editions.

"It was great to be personally recognized in two categories, but even more exciting was the fact that broader sections of the newspaper were recognized in three categories," commented Setter. "As hard as we all work as individuals, the goal really is to put out an attractive and successful paper. So having the news page, features page, and general excellence of the paper rewarded really lends itself to a sense of accomplishment."

The Pleiad competed in Division II against newspapers such as the Grand Valley State University Lanthorn, the Hillsdale College Collegian, and the Valley Vanguard of Saginaw Valley State University.

The award winners--with links to the articles--are listed below, with MPA judges' comments. (Links open as PDF files--in some cases articles can be seen only by scrolling down pages.)

Non-deadline story - First Place
Izzy Bendall and Andrew Kimball - Underground Dog Fighting
"Nice coverage of a community issue - well-written with solid comments."

Investigative Reporting
First Place: Holly Setter - Frustration 101 [PDF]
"Nice job of exploring impact of faculty cuts on students"

Second place: Kyle Gillis - PTM begins paying back bonuses
"Good followup to the WSJ article"

Feature - Third Place
Kayla Kiley - Pornified

Column - Second place
Holly Setter - Cheney vs. Smith [PDF]
"Amen! You do a nice job of tackling the subject of our misguided focus on unimportant ‘news' with humor and wit. Nicely done."

General Excellence - Third Place
"Great variety in story selection. Attractive layouts and effective use of graphics. Good coverage of campus and off-campus. Writing is varied and well-done."

News Page Design - Third Place

Feature Page Design - Third Place