{"id":7398,"date":"2026-02-25T08:18:55","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T14:18:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/?p=7398"},"modified":"2026-02-25T08:18:55","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T14:18:55","slug":"the-spectator-takes-home-10-icpa-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/?p=7398","title":{"rendered":"The Spectator Takes Home 10 ICPA Awards"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Spectator earned 10 awards on Feb. 21 at the Illinois College Press Association&#8217;s annual conference in Chicago.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The two-day conference brought together more than 240 students representing 27 university student news organizations from across Illinois. The meeting included sessions about journalism and how to improve student publications, with opportunities for networking and an awards luncheon.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The awards are divided into three divisions: large school (7,000+ students), medium school (2,300-6,999 students) and small school (less than 2,300 students). With 1,141 undergraduate students enrolled, CUC competed under the small school division. Entries in each category are critiqued by an independent panel of judges.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Spectator staff took home 2nd place among small schools for General Excellence &#8211; Website in addition to several awards that were presented to individual staff members:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">1st place (open competition) &#8211; Entertainment &amp; Culture Podcast, <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/episode\/3eZaJNiZ1DeCTqDYj431Iy?si=4hV3WiGZTIqMPYhhsnF89A\">\u201cWho Spectates the Spectators?\u201d Episode 4<\/a> by Eric Perry and Katelyn Whitlock\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2nd place (small schools) &#8211; Sports news story, <a href=\"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/6938\/sports\/cuc-cuts-mens-lacrosse-program\/\">\u201cCUC Cuts Men\u2019s Lacrosse Program\u201d<\/a> by Fatima Martinez<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2nd place (small schools) &#8211; Feature photo, <a href=\"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/7091\/sports\/cuc-adds-new-athletic-director-and-two-new-head-coaches\/\">\u201cCUC baseball team prepares for what they hope is a special 2026 season\u201d<\/a> by Nathaniel Clayton<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2nd place (small schools) &#8211; General news photo,<a href=\"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/7013\/campus-life\/where-has-the-student-activity-fee-gone\/\"> \u201cStudents participating in a Bingo Night held in the Cougar Den\u201d<\/a> by Nathaniel Clayton<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">3rd place (small schools) &#8211; Headline writing, <a href=\"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/7073\/showcase\/turning-lemons-into-lemonaid-community-comes-together-for-9-11-memorial-charity-event\/\">\u201cTurning Lemons into LemonAid: Community Comes Together for 9\/11 Memorial, Charity Event\u201d<\/a> by Katelyn Whitlock<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">3rd place (small schools) &#8211; Sports game story, <a href=\"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/6990\/sports\/cuc-dance-wins-cit-for-the-first-time\/\">\u201cCUC Dance Wins CIT for the First Time\u201d<\/a> by Jonathan Aungst<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">4th place (small schools) &#8211;\u00a0 News story, <a href=\"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/6965\/campus-life\/budget-shifting-leaves-sga-with-no-money-left-to-spend\/\">\u201cBudget \u2018Shifting\u2019 Leaves SGA With No Money Left to Spend\u201d<\/a> by Eric Perry<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">4th place (small schools) &#8211; Sports feature story, <a href=\"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/7041\/sports\/pitching-led-the-way-for-a-special-season-for-the-cougars\/\">\u201cPitching Led the Way for a Special Season for the Cougars\u201d<\/a> by Jonathan Aungst<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">4th place (small schools) &#8211; In-depth reporting, <a href=\"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/7013\/campus-life\/where-has-the-student-activity-fee-gone\/\">\u201cWhere Does the Student Activity Fee Go?\u201d<\/a> by Eric Perry<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Spectator earned 10 awards on Feb. 21 at the Illinois College Press Association&#8217;s annual conference in Chicago.\u00a0 The two-day conference brought together more than 240 students representing 27 university student news organizations from across Illinois. The meeting included sessions about journalism and how to improve student publications, with opportunities for networking and an awards [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":7401,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-concordia-news","category-showcase"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7398\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}