A New Daughter for the Loops

Journalism professor Mead Loop and his wife Jill became the proud parents of a baby girl last Friday morning. Cassandra Anne arrived four weeks early at 6 lbs., 7 oz. This is the third daughter for Mead. Congratulations to Mead and Jill.

Ithacan Wins SPJ Best in Northeast Region

The Ithacan has once again been named the best non-daily student newspaper in the Northeast by the Society of Professional Journalist. SPJ, the largest professional organization of reporters and editors in the country, presented the paper with the First Place Mark of Excellence Award at its Region 1 conference on April 25 in Philadelphia.
The paper now goes on to compete against the first-place winners in the other 11 regions in SPJ’s national competition, the results of which will be announced at the SPJ national convention in Indianapolis, August 27–30. The Ithacan placed second nationally in last year’s competition.
In addition, senior Jennifer Nevins’ story, “That’s How They Roll,” on a local roller derby team, won the First Place Mark of Excellence Award in the Feature Writing category, and will go on to compete in the national competition as well. Senior Erica R. Hendry’s “Jazz Man,” a profile of recently retired music professor Steve Brown, took second place in the Feature Writing category. The stories appeared in the October 23, 2008, and April 24, 2008, issues of The Ithacan, respectively.
Above: Jackie Palochko ’11, next year's Ithacan news editor, and Allison Musante ’10, next year's Ithacan managing editor, with the awards at the convention.

Byard Duncan's Ithacan Story on CommonDreams.org

Senior Byard Duncan's front-page story on gas drilling from this week's paper was picked up by CommonDreams.org. That's the second Ithacan story they've picked up this semester.

Dianne Lynch Leaving Ithaca College

In case you haven't heard yet, Dean Dianne Lynch is leaving the Park School — for real this time — to be president of Stephens College in Columbia, Mo. Read the Ithacan story.

New Ithacan Editor

Lindsey Hollenbaugh, a junior journalism major and politics minor, has been selected as the 2009–10 Ithacan editor in chief. A Downsville, N.Y., native (the name should be familiar to those of you who make the NYC-to-Ithaca trip on Route 17), she is currently the paper's opinion editor.

Baby Bluey Arrives

Benjamin Thomas Bluey, son of Melissa (Bloomrose) Bluey ’00 and Rob Bluey ’01,was born at 5:39 a.m. this morning, weighing 8 lbs. 9 oz., and 21 inches long. Mother and son are resting comfortably.
Congratulations to Rob and Missy and the extended Bluey family!

Ithacan: The Next Generation

Michelle (Theis) Cuthrell ’04 and her husband Matt are now the proud parents of a second son, Joel Joseph Cuthrell, born the 4th of April — 9 days early, on his older brother Connor’s third birthday. Talk about sibling rivalry! If J.J. is half as much fun as C.J., the Cuthrell home is going to be a lively place for the next couple of decades.
It’s definitely baby season. Rob (’01) and Missy (’00) Bluey’s forthcoming child is due April 11. And IC President Tom Rochon and his wife Amber have a baby coming next month as well.
(Photo above: Michelle holding J.J. for the first time.)

More Awards

The Ithacan has won first place for Design and second place for Sports Coverage in this year's New York Press Association Better College Newspaper Competition. In addition, Jen Nevins, Tom Eschen, Connor Gleason and Diana Cowdery have won individual awards in their respective categories.
The awards are for work published during the 2008 calendar year. Both winning feature stories were sports fronts from the same month — pretty impressive. The list of winners is below. Congratulations to everyone involved.

First Place, Design
(Spring 2008 Editor: Lena Yue ’10; Fall 2008 Editor: Alexis McNutt ’11)

Second Place, Best Sports Coverage
(Spring 2008 Editor: Andrew Lovell ’08; Fall 2008 Editor: Cory Francer ’10)

Second Place, Feature Story
Jen Nevins ’09, "That's How They Roll," roller derby feature (Sports, Oct. 23, 2008)

Third Place, Feature Story
Tom Eschen ’11, "Built on Determination," a profile of Jared Azuma (Sports, Oct. 9, 2008)

Second Place, Photography
Connor Gleason ’08, lead photo for "Rise in the East, Response in the West," (News, March 27, 2008)

Third Place, Photography
Diana Cowdery ’09, photo of didgeridoo player in "Fun Down Under" (This I See, Aug. 29, 2008)

Ithacan's Izzy Awards Story Gets National Attention

Our coverage of the first annual Izzy Awards, presented by the Park School's Center for Independent Media to Amy Goodman and Glenn Greenwald Tuesday night, has been bringing a lot of readers to our site. In addition, the story (by Assistant News Editor Becca Burns) has been picked up by Michael Moore and commondreams.org, among others.

We're on Twitter

You can now follow The Ithacan on Twitter. To sign up, click here.

Informal Alumni Weekend

Maybe it's the fact that it's (kind of) spring, or maybe it's just a coincidence, but there were a lot of alumni around this weekend.
On Friday afternoon, former Accent editor James Sigman ’98 and former news editor Brian Chambala dropped by the office. They were getting ready to go to the 10th anniversary party for Buzzsaw (originally Buzzsaw Haircut), which they help create a decade ago.
Also around this weekend were 2008 grads Nic Barajas, Lydia Dimitriadis, Bill Earl, Connor Gleason and Andrew Lovell, who were back in town to visit friends.

More Ithacan News

A number of our alumni have expressed a desire to hear more about what's going on here at the paper, so in addition to posting updates about alumni activities I'm going to be posting more news about what's going on at The Ithacan these days. I hope you find it interesting.

On the Road

March 20 was a big travel day for Ithacan writers and editors. Editor in Chief Erin Geismar, Senior Writer Jen Nevins, Special Projects Manager Tricia Nadolny (shown above, left to right) and I traveled to Boston for the annual Nieman Narrative Journalism conference. We attended three days of workshops and talks by prominent narrative journalists and editors, including the New Yorker’s Jon Lee Anderson, Washington Post multimedia journalist Jennifer Crandall (who produces their “onBeing” video project) and PBS journalist Gwen Ifill.


The same day, News Editor Libby Sile and Opinion Editor Lindsey Hollenbaugh went to New York for the New York Times Student News Editors Workshop, where they met with Times reporters and editors and discussed developments in the profession. The workshop is organized by the Council of Independent Colleges.