On Oct. 27, Cabrini’s student-run, award-winning paper, the Loquitur, won a third-place finish for Best Campus Engagement and an honorable mention for Diversity Coverage in the 2022 College Media Association Pinnacle Awards competition.
The Loquitur, under previous adviser Marion Callahan, submitted published work for the competition, including “Being Black on a campus that cut Black Studies,” by Sydnee Reddy, a special print issue on human trafficking, a collaborative effort by the entire editorial staff.
“I am very proud of the community and camaraderie of the Loquitur team that was able to unite on every project, from outreach in Ukraine to tackling the sensitive issue of human trafficking in our backyard, while at the same time holding previous leadership accountable for decisions on diversity and program cuts,” Callahan, said.
The College Media Association Pinnacle Awards recognizes the best of college student media across the country each academic year, honoring competing schools for their work in journalism, including print, broadcast, and online outlets.
“As former editor in chief, I was determined to make the Loquitur the best I could, and with the help of the rest of the newsroom we truly accomplished that,” Sophia Gerner, senior communication and early education double major, said. “It means so much to know that all of our hard work over the past year is paying off and being valued by others.”
In the Best Campus Engagement category, the Loquitur competed against some of the largest U.S. universities, and received third place for coverage of Cabrini’s human trafficking panel. The panel featured Abbie Newman, CEO of Mission Kids Child Advocacy Center, Carla Clanagan, member of Cabrini’s Domestic Violence Awareness Board of Advisors, and Walt Hunter, retired Eyewitness News reporter.
“These national awards are definitely an effect of all the hard work and late nights our newsroom put in and I couldn’t be more proud to stand next to this team,” Gerner said.
The first place winner, the University of Texas at Arlington, has an enrollment of around 40,000 students. Second place winner California State University in Los Angeles has an estimated 27,000 students. Cabrini University has an enrollment of 1,760 students.
“We also had weekly meetings to promote campus engagement and awareness of the paper,” Gerner said. “This is why the award for best campus engagement is so special for us because that was a main goal for our newsroom last year and not only did we accomplish that but we also received third place while being up against so many DI schools.”
In Diversity Coverage, Reddy’s article, “Being Black on a campus that cut Black studies,” written in Nov. 2021, won honorable mention for this category.
“I’m happy I was a part of such a hardworking group of individuals that made it possible for the paper to win these awards,” Sydnee Reddy, senior digital communications major and former multimedia editor said. “It’s really great that the hard work we as editors and even the reporters on the staff last year put in paid off.”
The announcement came just a few months after the Loquitur took home 10 Keystone Media Awards from the Pennsylvania Media Association in April. These new national student media achievements continue to cement the Loquitur’s legacy of outstanding journalism work.
“We didn’t just have a staff of reporters doing the assignments for class. We had a community of creative and innovative students who embraced leadership and audience-driven content as if they were professionals in the field,” Callahan said.
Marcus Alvarez contributed to the creation of this article.
