In October, The Vermilion, UL Lafayette’s student newspaper, received a second-place award from the American Scholastic Press Association in New York.
Competing against schools from across the country, The Vermilion was evaluated for content, editing, design, art and illustrations, general plan and creativity.
According to the ASPA, The Vermilion “shows the emerging creativity and journalistic knowledge of your editors, reporters, writers, photographers, and graphic designers.”
The Vermilion received perfect scores from ASPA for originality, editing, connecting content to the campus community and overall page design.
“Your ability to keep your publication alive and printing during a pandemic is a testament to your dedication and devotion to your publication, school, community and each other,” the ASPA continued. “Congratulations for surviving this unpredictable situation successfully.”
“This award is a reminder of the creative minds and determined spirits that work together to make a quality newspaper that’s catered towards informing the student body,” Vermilion Editor Lena Foster said. “It means that our hard work is not going unnoticed and that we have to raise the bar even more now. I am so grateful for this achievement, and we intend to grow as a collective and to consistently produce work that not only reflects our efforts but our passions at The Vermilion.”
“To me, this award represents all the hard work done by our editors, writers, and designers,” Adhamm Safford, Vermilion news and managing editor, said. “It takes a lot of hours from a lot of people to be able to put out a quality paper each week, and I’m glad that the creativity and effort of our staff has been recognized in this way.”
“I am incredibly proud to be a part of The Vermilion, and this award represents hours and hours of hard work,” Marie Ducote, Vermilion Allons editor, said.
“The Vermilion staff is continuing to do a superior job of focusing on issues that affect our students, staff, faculty and alumni,” Director of Student Publications Matthew Tarver said. “The past two years have seen our student media staff excel under the most unusual circumstances. Whether they were forced to deal with the pandemic, a hurricane, a freeze, technology issues, staff limitations—or combinations of these elements—they continued to regularly produce publications that are highly valued by the campus community.”
This is the fourth national award The Vermilion has received in the past three years. The Vermilion newspaper placed fourth overall at the 2021 Southeast Journalism Conference. In 2020, The Vermillion earned a first-place individual writing award and a second-place overall award from SEJC.
The Vermilion newspaper was started by Edith Garland Dupré and has been published by UL Lafayette students since 1904.