By: Megan Clark
Campus Life Editor

Last year, The Journal submitted a selection of its work to The Associated Collegiate Press (ACP), an organization that critiques and gives rankings to collegiate newspapers.

Recently, the critique was returned and The Journal was selected for a merit award, and given mark of distinction in the category of Photos, Art & Graphics. In the category of Photos, Art & Graphics, the ACP marked the paper at 145 out of 150 possible points.

The paper was given an overall honor rating of 701. The honor rating of 701 places the paper in the second-class rank, the third best rating in the scale.

According to their website, ACP “promotes standards and ethics of good journalism” by offering reviews and comments about college and university newspapers.

The critique was broken down into multiple categories; The Journal scored well in Layout & Design and Coverage & Content, though it scored highest in Photos, Art & Graphics.

According to the judge, Shawn Murphy, The Journal should “keep up the photo coverage. This is a strength.” Though The Journal received high marks, there is still room for improvement in others.

Conner Williams, The Journal’s editor-in-chief, has also been selected as one of ten finalists for Story of the Year in the Editorial and Opinion category. Williams was nominated for his April 2015 opinion piece titled “Up in smoke: The ethical dilemmas of a convenience store clerk”.

When asked about the paper’s direction for the new school year, the Editor-in-Chief said, “For this year, we’re going to increase our social media and online presence, conduct investigative reports, especially in editorial pieces.”

Williams also focused on “making sure all stories go through rigorous copy editing to make sure all stories are as accurate as possible.”

With the judge’s comments in mind, The Journal hopes to improve its scores in the other categories and rank even higher for the next ACP review.