The Argus Earns 11 Awards from Illinois College Press Association | iwu.edu
The Argus Earns 11 Awards from Illinois College Press Association | iwu.edu
The Argus Earns 11 Awards from Illinois College Press Association
Staff members for Illinois Wesleyan University’s student newspaper, The Argus, took home 11 awards from the annual Illinois College Press Association (ICPA) awards ceremony in Chicago.
“The Argus continues its commitment to journalism by putting out an issue every week,” said current faculty advisor and R. Forrest Colwell Endowed Chair of English James Plath. “We’re one of the oldest, continuously published college newspapers in the country.”
Founded in 1894, The Argus is a weekly print publication with stories also shared digitally at www.iwuargus.com. Plath has advised the newspaper staff for the last 35 years, replacing former IWU journalism professor Harvey Beutner, who was a founding member of the ICPA — making IWU one of the charter schools for the organization.
The ICPA serves member schools across the state and honors the work of student journalists whose newspapers are members of the ICPA. Entries to the annual ICPA Contest are judged by professional journalists.
Plath and The Argus staff members Farah Bassyouni '25 and Samson Mosley '24 traveled to Chicago in February for two days of professional panels about different aspects of journalism. This was followed by a luncheon where awards for the 2022 calendar year were presented to student journalists based on performance in their respective divisions according to the school’s enrollment size.
The Argus’ awards included:
Bassyouni, who won two first-place awards and one third-place award for her writing as The Argus news editor, said she found that students at other universities share similar challenges and passions about producing a school newspaper.“There's a whole community of college newspapers who are also just trying to get by and publish things for their campus,” said Bassyouni.
“When students talk with other college journalists at ICPA, they learn they’re not alone,” Plath said. “Everyone struggles just to produce a single issue. To produce an issue with some great things in it takes even more time and effort, so any awards won are a reflection of Argus staffers going the extra mile.”
Bassyouni said she hopes to be more bold and experimental with The Argus moving forward, “because I think that’s what this campus needs.”
“I learned that a college newspaper has the potential to be incredibly influential — it's the voice of the students and it can literally create change.”
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