Thresher, Campanile place sixth at national convention

FROM RICE NEWS STAFF REPORTS

Rice’s undergraduate student newspaper and yearbook placed among the top 10 in their respective categories at the National College Media Convention in Orlando, Fla., last weekend.

The Associated College Press ranked the Rice Thresher sixth in the category for weekly tabloids at four-year colleges; the Campanile was also sixth in the category for yearbooks with 300 or more pages. The competition was limited to schools that sent representatives to the convention.

“Although the Thresher is used to this type of honor, this was the first time in quite a while that the Campanile got recognition on a national level,” said Kelley Callaway, Rice’s director of student publications. “We placed higher than the University of Oklahoma’s yearbook, which has consistently been one of the best books in the country, so we’re very, very proud of that.”

For the competition, the Thresher entered its Sept. 16 issue, which featured front-page stories about the football team, OWL-Space and the Hoot’s South Servery and editorials on the football team’s victory, improvements needed at the student center and suggestions for making Bicycle Awareness Week more effective.

“Our staff come from all different majors, years and interests, and I’m proud of their constant dedication to covering news at Rice,” said senior Josh Rutenberg, Thresher editor in chief. “We don’t get class credit for working at the newspaper; we genuinely love what we do and this award demonstrates our commitment to excellence in representing Rice beyond the hedges.”

The Campanile entered its 2011 edition, which featured a Plexiglas cover with a die-cut shape that was replicated throughout the book.

“The yearbook is truly the hard work of a staff whose sole reason for doing it is love for journalism and photography and not because they get class credit or money,” said alumna Juliana Serrano ’11, who was editor of the 2011 Campanile. “Yearbook is a completely voluntary activity. The staff doesn’t expect payment, and they work during off hours. They should definitely celebrate all their hard work. I am so very proud of them!”

In addition to Rutenberg, Thresher staff members who represented Rice at the convention were juniors Zach Casias, Anthony Lauriello and Ellen Liu and sophomores Ruby Gee and Alex Weinheimer. Campanile staff members at the convention were junior Naomi Fa-Kaji, junior Sara Nowak and freshman Gloria Quintanilla.