The 2008 verdict is in: The Herald won 14 Michigan Press Association College Newspaper Contest awards, including 1^st place General Excellence for Division II.

Thirteen other awards The Herald won were 2^nd place Investigative Reporting for Laurie Hekman’s “Campus Safety uses e-bay to solve theft”; 1^st place Overall Newspaper Design; 1^st place News Page Design; 1^st place Feature Page Design; 3^rd place Sports News for Tim Devaney’s “Athletes express remorse for infractions”; Sports News honorable mention for Katherine Wisen’s “Athletes’ drinking policy will be stricter”; 2^nd place Sports Feature for Amena Anderson’s “The faithful team manager”; 1^st and 2^nd place Sports Column for Tim Devaney’s “Impending summer makes for difficult decisions” and Lisa Heasley’s “Facebook photos”; 2^nd and 3^rd place Sports Photos for Helen Andrews’ “The woman behind the team” and Tim Devaney’s “Men’s soccer”; 2^nd place Feature Photo for Tamara Jackson’s “Home away from Kenya”; and 1^st place Column for Steven Lister’s “A ‘Christian’ article.”

Alan Blanchard, associate professor of journalism and The Herald adviser, said he was “blown away” when he heard the news.

“God has been very good to The Herald by providing it with intelligent, hard-working student journalists who continue to improve the quality and credibility of this student newspaper,” he said. “Honestly, when I first learned about the awards I was very excited for last year’s top Herald editors Laurie Hekman and Sarah Heth, who worked tirelessly to make last year’s student newspaper best in appearance and content.”

Blanchard added that Hekman and Heth could not have pulled it off without help from other Herald writers, photographers and editors, including Amena Anderson, Rachel Watson, Melissa Kersjes, Tim Devaney, Lisa Heasley, Katherine Wisen, Lauren Hines and others.

Above all, though, Blanchard said he was humbled to realize The Herald had been named 1^st place winner for General Excellence amid a sea of competitors such as Calvin College, Albion College, Hillsdale College, Ferris State University and Saginaw Valley State University, also Division II weekly newspapers.

When CU Provost By Baylis heard about the awards, he offered his congratulations to The Herald staff.

“Putting a paper together, week after week, and doing a consistently good job takes a high level of dedication, a commitment to excellence, and a devotion to duty,” he said. “Judge after judge commented on the professionalism of writing and appearance. It is nice to have others recognize what we on campus see week after week.”

Michael Cuffman, chair of the Communication and Media Studies Division, also shared his delight about the awards.

“The Herald has won awards in the past several years, but winning the [1^st place General Excellence award] was especially exciting. To see that our students are excelling at that level is just very exciting.”

Cuffman attributed a lot of the success to Blanchard, but also said credit belongs to the students who work so hard. He said he appreciates the role they play in Cornerstone’s culture.

“I think in terms of layout, in terms of quality, The Herald is top notch. It is visually attractive, but it is also timely and relevant,” he said.

“It used to be that The Herald was irrelevant, but in the last 10 years it has become a relevant part of our campus culture, to the point where I would have a hard time thinking about our campus without it,” Cuffman said. “People are enjoying it.”