UHCL student newspaper one of six finalists for national award

December 10, 2018 | Brandon Pena

The University of Houston-Clear Lake’s student-run newspaper, The Signal, is one of six collegiate publications in the nation to be chosen as a finalist for Columbia Scholastic Press Association’s (CSPA) 2019 Crown Awards in the category of digital publications.

This is the second time the publication has earned this achievement, with The Signal previously winning the Silver Crown Award in 2016. The Signal team will learn if the publication won either the Gold or Silver Award at the CSPA's 95th Spring Scholastic Convention in March 2019, but all six finalists are assured of winning one or the other. The Signal is the only collegiate student newspaper finalist from Texas.

“This is only the second time that The Signal has won a Crown Award; they’re difficult to win because it’s a national collegiate competition, and we’re competing against Ivy League colleges and other universities with full-fledged journalism programs whereas we offer a couple of journalism classes housed in our Communication program, so that speaks very highly about the quality and dedication of our UHCL students,” said Taleen Washington, director of student publications and senior lecturer in communication.

Lindsay Humphrey, manager of student publications, also said The Signal’s selection as a Crown Award finalist represents the staff’s hard work. 

“I am incredibly proud of The Signal staff for all of the hard work that has brought them this well-deserved recognition from CSPA,” Humphrey said. “Being selected as a Crown Award Finalist is a reflection of the staff’s dedication and immense talent. That our students can compete with publications from universities across the country – some of which feature intense journalism programs – and hold their own speaks volumes to the quality of student journalism being produced by The Signal.”

In October, The Signal received a perfect score for the first time in the CSPA’s Medalist Critiques competition. Crown Award finalists are judged on overall excellence, while the Medalist Critiques provide publications with strengths and weaknesses.

“Every year The Signal participates in a newspaper critique review offered by Columbia Scholastic Press Association as a way to assess the quality of the student newspaper,” Washington said. “We almost always do well, but this year we earned our first perfect score, 1,000 out of 1,000 possible points. To be honest, based on the critique score, I was expecting to win a Crown Award again this year and would have been disappointed if we hadn’t. Come next March, we’ll see if a perfect critique score translates to gold status.”

Humphrey said The Signal has a long history of award-winning student journalism, with the recent designation from CSPA adding to a series of accolades for the paper.

“Just two months ago we found out The Signal had received a perfect score in its Medalist Critique from CSPA, earning a Gold Medal, while in March the students brought home 24 state-level awards from the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association,” Humphrey said. “It’s not a bad way to celebrate the paper’s 40th year of continuous publishing. We have an outstanding student staff that continues to amaze me every single week with every edition they publish.”

CSPA will announce its Gold and Silver Crown awardees in March 2019 at the annual Spring Convention held in New York City.