Three Newspapers Win Duke-Sponsored Higher Education Awards

Three North Carolina news organizations were awarded the Green-Rossiter Award, sponsored each year by Duke University for outstanding coverage of higher education issues in the state.

The awards were presented last week at the North Carolina Press Association banquet in Raleigh.

First place in the Community News category was the Smoky Mountain News for the work of reporter Holly Kays. The judges wrote of their submission: “When Western Carolina University’s chancellor died, Holly Kays ably covered the reaction at the university and in the community, showing in a deep way what he meant to both. She was then able to publish many details about the search for a new chancellor and to write authoritatively about the politics surrounding the selection.”

First place in the Online Newspaper category was EducationNC, which publishes a daily independent newspaper that covers education and related policy issues in the state. The judges were impressed with a project in which the staff visited all 58 community colleges in North Carolina and reported on what they found: “This project was smart, ambitious, sweeping and eye-opening. No doubt readers learned a lot about the 58 community colleges in their midst.”

First place in the Daily Newspaper category went to the News & Observer for the work of reporter Jane Stancill. The judges said of this entry: “Jane Stancill’s coverage of higher education stands out as deeply sourced, knowledgeable and authoritative.” Stancill, who recently left the N&O, has won the Green-Rossiter Award on several occasions.

The Green-Rossiter Award is named for William Green, who served as Duke’s director of university relations and later as university vice president during Terry Sanford’s presidency at Duke, and Al Rossiter, who for 10 years was the director of the Duke News Service and assistant vice president in the university’s office of public affairs.