January 18, 2001

WKU Student Newspaper Finalist For Gold Crown Award

Bowling Green, Ky. - Western Kentucky University's student newspaper is a finalist for the Columbia Scholastic Press Association's coveted Gold Crown Award.

The College Heights Herald has won the award for two consecutive years. Last year Gold Crowns were awarded to Western, Ball State and Indiana.

This year's contest covers the fall 1999 and spring 2000 semesters. In November, the Herald won a third consecutive National Pacemaker from the Associated Collegiate Press and the Newspaper Association of America Foundation.

John Stamper, a December 1999 graduate and a business reporter at the Lexington Herald-Leader, was editor in the fall of 1999. Shannon Back of Mount Sterling and Jerry Brewer of Paducah were co-editors in the spring of 2000. Back is a reporter at the Tampa Tribune and Brewer is a sports writer at the Philadelphia Inquirer. Both graduated in May 2000.

Other finalists are papers at Kansas State University, Ball State University, University of California Riverside, Indiana University, Southern Methodist University, University of Illinois, Eastern Kentucky University, Ithaca College, University of Oklahoma, University of Texas at Arlington, Michigan State University, University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

The Gold Crown Awards will be presented Feb. 15 at the 23rd Annual Spring National College Media Convention in New York City.

For more information, contact Bob Adams, Herald adviser, at (270) 745-6278.