UTD’s Student Newspaper Takes Top Honors In Associated Collegiate Press Competition

RICHARDSON, Texas (Nov. 9, 2004) — The UTD Mercury, the student newspaper at The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD), earned first-place honors in the “Best of Show” category at the 2004 Associated Collegiate Press convention, Nov. 4-7, in Nashville, Tenn.

The UTD Mercury , which is edited by Chad Eggspuehler, senior government and politics major from Richardson, earned the award for its Oct. 18, 2004, issue and was in competition with other four-year colleges and universities across the United States and Canada that publish bi-weekly or monthly newspapers.

This year’s honor represents the third top-two finish for UTD’s student newspaper in the past four years of the national competition. The UTD Mercury last won first-place honors in 2002 in Orlando, Fla.

Second-place honors this year went to The Reflector of Mount Royal College in Calgary, Alberta. Third through fifth places were awarded to California State University- Monterey Bay ( Seaside, Calif.), Virginia Wesleyan College ( Norfolk, Va.) and Johnson and Wales University ( Providence, R.I.), respectively. Editors and reporters from the NashvilleTennessean, the host newspaper for the four-day convention, which attracted more than 2,700 collegiate journalists from across the U. S. and Canada, judged the competition.

“The reporters and editors at The UTD Mercury have been working hard this fall to continue to put out an interesting, readable product that adheres to high journalistic standards,” said Jay Miller, editorial advisor for newspaper. “I am very proud of them for producing work that the Associated Collegiate Press deemed worthy of this prestigious award.”

The Associated Collegiate Press, established in 1933, is a division of the National Scholastic Press Association. Today, it is the largest and oldest membership organization for college student media in the U. S.  

About UTD

The University of Texas at Dallas, located at the convergence of Richardson, Plano and Dallas in the heart of the complex of major multinational technology corporations known as the Telecom Corridor®, enrolls more than 14,000 students. The school’s freshman class traditionally stands at the forefront of Texas state universities in terms of average SAT scores. The university offers a broad assortment of bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs. For additional information about UTD, please visit the university’s Web site at www.utdallas.edu.