'98- '99 Loquitur staff earns national distinction

The staff of last year's Loquitur was awarded an All American rating with five marks of distinction, which is the highest award that can be given to a college newspaper by the Associated Collegiate Press.

by Janice Funk managing editor

If the Associated Collegiate Press, a national judging service for college newspapers, gave out letter grades, the 1998-99 Loquitur staff would have received straight A:s.

Loquitur earned five marks of distinction from the ACP on Tuesday, Sept. 20, marking only the second time in the history of the,, newspaper that it has received these highest honors.

Each year, the ACP holds this national contest. Five consecutive issues of a newspaper are submitted, along with two of the best of the year.

Loquitur garnered a mark of distinction in each of the five categories set forth by the ACP: Coverage and Content; Writing and Editing; Photography, Art and Graphics; Layout and Design; and

Leadership.

In his Journalism I class, after receiving the news, Dr. Jerome Zurek, English/communication chair, expressed his pride over the honors.

Zurek explained to students that Loquitur was judged beside schools such as the University of Texas at Austin, which has over 3,000 journalism majors as compared to Cabrini's entire student body of not even 2,000 students.

"Gutsy editorials," "strong letters to the editor," and "hard-hitting columns" were cited by the judge as the more remarkable areas of the paper.

The front page was also commended for its striking graphics.

Zurek owes the good front pages to Don Dempsey's instruction in the area of graphic design.

''The paper couldn't have gotten all five marks of distinction without the benefit of the graphic de- sign department," Zurek said.

Jen Nespoli, Features editor for the 1998-99 Loquitur, was not surprised by the five marks of distinction.

"I was hoping we would get all five," Nespoli said. "My goal was to do a good paper. This was just the icing on the cake."

"You can never tell if the newspaper is reaching the students, but it was cool to see people reading the paper and talking about it last year," Nespoli said.

Neither Ron D'Orazio nor Paul Moser, sports editors for the 199899 school year and 1999 graduates of Cabrini, were surprised to learn that Loquitur had done so well in the competition.

"I'm not surprised because we had a good group of students," said D'Orazio. Moser echoes his attitude.

''We had a solid staff," Moser said. "Our goal was to report well, both graphically and content- college newspapers in the country, wise." will move to the next level of Loquitur, now among the top 25 competition.