(New Orleans)―The Southeast Journalism Conference has recognized Loyola University New Orleans’ student newspaper, The Maroon, in its “2007 Best of the South” competition. The Maroon is the recipient of five awards, including:

• Best editorial writer: Coleen O'Lear, 3rd place (out of 28 entries)

• Best special event reporter: Jared Bailey and Kelly Brown, A '06, 4th place (out of eight entries, for their series on Loyola's Katrina victims)

• Best news graphic designer: Daniel Monteverde, 4th place (out of 15 entries)

• Best newspaper page layout: Catherine Cotton, 4th place (out of 22 entries)

• Best college newspaper: The Maroon, 5th place (out of 27 entries)

The “Best of the South” competition gathers professional journalists from around the country to judge work from student publications in the past year and rank the Top 10, and were announced at the Southeast Journalism Conference’s annual meeting, held in Birmingham, Ala., January 25-27, 2007, and co-hosted by the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Samford University.

The Southeast Journalism Conference is an organization of more than 45 member colleges and universities in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee. It was created to encourage greater interest in student journalism and to form closer ties among journalism schools in the Southeast United States.

The awards come just a few months after The Maroon was awarded The 2006 Pacemaker Award by the Associated Collegiate Press (ACP) during ACP’s national convention in St. Louis last October.

For more information on the Southern Journalism Conference, visit http://www.sejc.org