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USD Paper Makes News
  
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The Volante Wins Seventh Prestigious National Award
BY RANDY DOCKENDORF
randy.dockendorf@yankton.net
VERMILLION — The rest of the University of South Dakota was looking forward Monday afternoon to the next day’s break for Veterans Day. But it was anything but down time at the Volante campus newspaper.
In a little more than 30 hours, the Volante staff needed to pull together stories and photos, design pages, edit their work — and get the final product to the Yankton Press & Dakotan by midnight Tuesday.
Editor-in-chief Michelle Rydell came into the newsroom, which was buzzing with the activity of about a dozen staff members. The ultimate example of multi-tasking, she handled calls on her office phone and cell phone, answered a staffer’s question and fielded a Press & Dakotan interview.
A newsroom wall and counter revealed another of her latest activities — traveling to Kansas City, Mo., where she accepted the Volante’s seventh National Pacemaker Award in the newspaper’s history. The award, started in 1927 and considered the Pulitzer Prize of college journalism, recognized the Volante as one of the nation’s best weekly college newspapers.
The Volante has served USD and the Vermillion community since 1887. The paper has won the Pacemaker five times in the last 15 years and three times in the last six years.
“I have received e-mails from past Volante members that congratulate us and say, ‘I was on a past Pacemaker,’” Rydell said. “The Volante has such a past tradition, and I am happy to keep it going.”
The Pacemaker Award is the highest honor given at the Associated Collegiate Press/College Media Advisers conference. It is the top award given by the ACP and Newspaper Association of America Foundation.
The Pacemaker reflects the newspaper’s commitment to covering campus events and controversies, Rydell said.
“I am very proud that the newspaper received this prestigious honor this year,” she said. “The staff works incredibly hard, and it’s nice to be recognized for that.”
Volante news editor Sarah Reinecke said the magnitude of the award struck her while waiting to hear the results at the convention.
“It was a really great feeling. We were all sitting in the front row, all the nominees. We didn’t realize all the (major) schools up for it,” she said. “Then they announced that the Volante received it, and it felt really good to know your hard work and dedication paid off.”
Many Volante staff members work at least 40 hours a week on the newspaper in addition to taking a full load of classes, Reinecke said.
“The staff is very committed to journalism. They strive to make the Volante the best it can be,” she said. “The staff comes up with great ideas. They are committed to a good final product and want to tell our readers the story.”
The Volante has recently taken a lead in community affairs, Rydell said. The newspaper hosted a District 17 Senate debate during the fall campaign. And with the new student union still under construction, the Volante offered the Al Neuharth Media Center conference room and large-screen televisions for students to watch Election Night results.
Given such outstanding efforts, Rydell said she was pleased — but not surprised — at the Pacemaker Award.
“We went up against really good schools. But I have gone to a half-dozen or more (competitions) in D.C. and Baltimore, and the Volante has done well in terms of Best of Show. I see us as one of the better newspapers,” she said.
“We have a very consistent reputation when you look at our critiques. We are commended for our very clean design, and they say we do a good job with our enterprise reporting. They comment that we have a very good feature section and pull-out (sidebar) stories.”
The Pacemaker competition is based on the following areas: coverage and content, quality of writing and reporting, leadership on the opinion page, evidence of in-depth reporting, design, photography, arts and graphics.
“We were particularly commended for our coverage of the impeachment of the former SGA (Student Government Association) president and the photo spread when our women’s basketball team was national runner-up. We also had a lot of really good story news,” Rydell said.
The contest organizers randomly select issues for the contest, which means newspapers must maintain excellence all year, Rydell said.
“It’s not like you can just pull out the best four or five papers. You have to be consistently good throughout the year,” she said. “It adds to the stress level. You know you have to be strong every week.”
The Volante draws much of its staff from South Dakota talent, Rydell said, noting the Volante staff includes a number of students from Yankton and surrounding communities.
“Yankton has done an outstanding job with their journalism department,” she said, crediting former Yankton High School advisor Richard Anderson. The Volante staff has included YHS graduates Jennifer Muhmel, Jessica Kokesh and Allison Struck, Rydell said. She added that the area connection continues with herself from Vermillion and assistant news editor Patrick Morrison from Wakonda.
Rydell said she believes in using younger staff members and allowing each person to grow in talent and experience.
“I try not to be a micro-manager. I have people do their own jobs. They handle their section the way they feel best,” she said. “The editors, I give them a lot of respect and a lot of room.”
Press & Dakotan assistant sports editor Jeremy Hoeck said he enjoyed that room to grow while he was on the Volante staff. Hoeck served as sports editor when the Volante won the Pacemaker in 2005-06 as well as 2007-08.
“Those years you spend in leadership positions really help you grow as a reporter,” he said. “All of the little things I learned at the Volante, that never really registered (at the time), are things I do every day here (at the P&D) in terms of copy editing, story production, layout and other small tasks. Everything I am doing right now in Yankton, I credit to all the time I spent with everybody at the Volante.”
To provide that valuable experience, the Volante has increasingly used younger editors and staff members, Rydell said.
“At a lot of colleges, they won’t allow you to write until you are a junior. Here, we throw in our freshmen,” she said. “We lost two Neuharth Scholars — one transferred and another changed majors — but we have had two sophomores, Patrick Morrison and Jessica Kokesh, step up (into senior staff positions).”
The newspaper is completely student run and operated, and it has a staff of approximately 60 students. The paper includes news, sports, opinion and Verve (arts/entertainment) sections. The paper also has a frequently updated Web site, www.volanteonline.com, that includes campus news, staff blogs, video and podcasts.
The Volante has rapidly increased its new media capabilities in addition to its award-winning print product, Hoeck said. The Volante is available on campus newsstands on Wednesdays during the school year and updated online daily.
“(Former editor) Justin Wolfgang and I started looking at online coverage. It has became more of a priority over the years. It’s just another way to develop our coverage,” Hoeck said. “Even now, you can really see how much time and effort they put into their online coverage with everything they did this year.”
The Volante has benefited greatly from its location in the Al Neuharth Media Center, Hoeck said. In addition, an endowment established by the Freedom Forum 20 years ago provides scholarships, training and a professional advisor for journalism students on The Volante staff. Freedom Forum founder Al Neuharth is a 1950 graduate of USD and was editor of The Volante in 1949.
“I don’t think people understand exactly what the Volante has for its resources, not only with scholarship money but also with the computers and all the materials within the journalism department that we use every day,” Hoeck said. “That’s something a lot of college papers can’t say; that they have those kinds of resources at their disposal.”
Besides offering physical and fiscal resources, the Freedom Forum provides training for Volante staff members, Reinecke said. Last weekend, the Volante staff received multi-media training from University of Montana graduate student Anne Medley and Freedom Forum multi-media education manager Val Hoeppner of Nashville, Tenn.
“We had the multi-media training at the Freedom Forum (on the USD campus),” Reinecke said. “We had eight people who participated Friday, Saturday and Sunday. They showed us video, audio and Web sites.”
But Rydell noted that USD gives the Volante two of the greatest gifts that money can’t buy — respect and editorial freedom. In fact, USD President Jim Abbott is hosting a reception for the Volante staff Friday afternoon to celebrate the Pacemaker award.
“We are an independent newspaper. There are a lot of schools where they have the provost overlooking you, and you can’t write anything negative about the administration,” Rydell said. “President Abbott doesn’t want a conflict of interest. He never interferes, and he does good interviews with us.”
Hoeck agreed with the autonomy, noting that Volante advisor Chuck Baldwin also takes a hands-off approach.
“One of the neatest parts of working for the Volante is that it is totally student run,” Hoeck said. “We have an advisor who is there if we need him, but he really doesn’t take an active role in the production. (Baldwin) just sits back and lets us run the show.”
Because of the intensity of putting together the paper, Volante staff members have developed strong bonds, Hoeck said.
“Before I came to USD, I always heard the Volante was a really solid paper. But you really can’t understand how involved everybody is until you get there,” he said. “Working for the Volante did take a lot of your time, but it forced those involved to really develop some good time-management skills because you are spending so much time working on it.”
Reinecke agreed, noting the staff develops into a family.
“The staff works so well together,” she said. “We have fun, we’re all friends and we get along well. It’s a really good atmosphere in the office.”
The Volante experience has also led to the staff members’ selection for strong internships, Rydell said.
“At USD, you get to work (on the Volante) so young, most have three or four successful internships (by graduation),” she said. “You get real-world experience.”
The Volante staff members aren’t resting on their laurels, Reinecke said.
“We always work to take it to the next level,” she said. “It’s very satisfying to know we won this (Pacemaker) award. We want to continue to do our best and put out the best product we possibly can. This has been a really great experience.”
The USD students have shown they can compete with anyone in the nation, Hoeck said.
“For a paper like the Volante at such a small school, it’s just amazing that it can compete with some of the bigger schools,” he said. “It just shows you that you don’t have to be at a large school to produce the kind of quality that the Volante does.”
Rydell agreed. “We prove South Dakota can produce quality college newspapers,” she said.
As she looks forward to graduation next spring, Rydell said she holds no regrets about remaining in Vermillion for college.
“The Neuharth Scholars is a great program, and they (USD) have one of the best journalism departments. Why go anywhere else?” she asked. “I’m doing things I couldn’t experience anyplace else.”
Rydell leaves her position as editor-in-chief at the end of the semester, with her successor to be determined. But whoever it is, she remains confident that the Volante has an excellent shot at bringing home another Pacemaker Award.
“I am leaving it in really good hands,” she said.
In a little more than 30 hours, the Volante staff needed to pull together stories and photos, design pages, edit their work — and get the final product to the Yankton Press & Dakotan by midnight Tuesday.
Editor-in-chief Michelle Rydell came into the newsroom, which was buzzing with the activity of about a dozen staff members. The ultimate example of multi-tasking, she handled calls on her office phone and cell phone, answered a staffer’s question and fielded a Press & Dakotan interview.
A newsroom wall and counter revealed another of her latest activities — traveling to Kansas City, Mo., where she accepted the Volante’s seventh National Pacemaker Award in the newspaper’s history. The award, started in 1927 and considered the Pulitzer Prize of college journalism, recognized the Volante as one of the nation’s best weekly college newspapers.
The Volante has served USD and the Vermillion community since 1887. The paper has won the Pacemaker five times in the last 15 years and three times in the last six years.
“I have received e-mails from past Volante members that congratulate us and say, ‘I was on a past Pacemaker,’” Rydell said. “The Volante has such a past tradition, and I am happy to keep it going.”
The Pacemaker Award is the highest honor given at the Associated Collegiate Press/College Media Advisers conference. It is the top award given by the ACP and Newspaper Association of America Foundation.
The Pacemaker reflects the newspaper’s commitment to covering campus events and controversies, Rydell said.
“I am very proud that the newspaper received this prestigious honor this year,” she said. “The staff works incredibly hard, and it’s nice to be recognized for that.”
Volante news editor Sarah Reinecke said the magnitude of the award struck her while waiting to hear the results at the convention.
“It was a really great feeling. We were all sitting in the front row, all the nominees. We didn’t realize all the (major) schools up for it,” she said. “Then they announced that the Volante received it, and it felt really good to know your hard work and dedication paid off.”
Many Volante staff members work at least 40 hours a week on the newspaper in addition to taking a full load of classes, Reinecke said.
“The staff is very committed to journalism. They strive to make the Volante the best it can be,” she said. “The staff comes up with great ideas. They are committed to a good final product and want to tell our readers the story.”
The Volante has recently taken a lead in community affairs, Rydell said. The newspaper hosted a District 17 Senate debate during the fall campaign. And with the new student union still under construction, the Volante offered the Al Neuharth Media Center conference room and large-screen televisions for students to watch Election Night results.
Given such outstanding efforts, Rydell said she was pleased — but not surprised — at the Pacemaker Award.
“We went up against really good schools. But I have gone to a half-dozen or more (competitions) in D.C. and Baltimore, and the Volante has done well in terms of Best of Show. I see us as one of the better newspapers,” she said.
“We have a very consistent reputation when you look at our critiques. We are commended for our very clean design, and they say we do a good job with our enterprise reporting. They comment that we have a very good feature section and pull-out (sidebar) stories.”
The Pacemaker competition is based on the following areas: coverage and content, quality of writing and reporting, leadership on the opinion page, evidence of in-depth reporting, design, photography, arts and graphics.
“We were particularly commended for our coverage of the impeachment of the former SGA (Student Government Association) president and the photo spread when our women’s basketball team was national runner-up. We also had a lot of really good story news,” Rydell said.
The contest organizers randomly select issues for the contest, which means newspapers must maintain excellence all year, Rydell said.
“It’s not like you can just pull out the best four or five papers. You have to be consistently good throughout the year,” she said. “It adds to the stress level. You know you have to be strong every week.”
The Volante draws much of its staff from South Dakota talent, Rydell said, noting the Volante staff includes a number of students from Yankton and surrounding communities.
“Yankton has done an outstanding job with their journalism department,” she said, crediting former Yankton High School advisor Richard Anderson. The Volante staff has included YHS graduates Jennifer Muhmel, Jessica Kokesh and Allison Struck, Rydell said. She added that the area connection continues with herself from Vermillion and assistant news editor Patrick Morrison from Wakonda.
Rydell said she believes in using younger staff members and allowing each person to grow in talent and experience.
“I try not to be a micro-manager. I have people do their own jobs. They handle their section the way they feel best,” she said. “The editors, I give them a lot of respect and a lot of room.”
Press & Dakotan assistant sports editor Jeremy Hoeck said he enjoyed that room to grow while he was on the Volante staff. Hoeck served as sports editor when the Volante won the Pacemaker in 2005-06 as well as 2007-08.
“Those years you spend in leadership positions really help you grow as a reporter,” he said. “All of the little things I learned at the Volante, that never really registered (at the time), are things I do every day here (at the P&D) in terms of copy editing, story production, layout and other small tasks. Everything I am doing right now in Yankton, I credit to all the time I spent with everybody at the Volante.”
To provide that valuable experience, the Volante has increasingly used younger editors and staff members, Rydell said.
“At a lot of colleges, they won’t allow you to write until you are a junior. Here, we throw in our freshmen,” she said. “We lost two Neuharth Scholars — one transferred and another changed majors — but we have had two sophomores, Patrick Morrison and Jessica Kokesh, step up (into senior staff positions).”
The newspaper is completely student run and operated, and it has a staff of approximately 60 students. The paper includes news, sports, opinion and Verve (arts/entertainment) sections. The paper also has a frequently updated Web site, www.volanteonline.com, that includes campus news, staff blogs, video and podcasts.
The Volante has rapidly increased its new media capabilities in addition to its award-winning print product, Hoeck said. The Volante is available on campus newsstands on Wednesdays during the school year and updated online daily.
“(Former editor) Justin Wolfgang and I started looking at online coverage. It has became more of a priority over the years. It’s just another way to develop our coverage,” Hoeck said. “Even now, you can really see how much time and effort they put into their online coverage with everything they did this year.”
The Volante has benefited greatly from its location in the Al Neuharth Media Center, Hoeck said. In addition, an endowment established by the Freedom Forum 20 years ago provides scholarships, training and a professional advisor for journalism students on The Volante staff. Freedom Forum founder Al Neuharth is a 1950 graduate of USD and was editor of The Volante in 1949.
“I don’t think people understand exactly what the Volante has for its resources, not only with scholarship money but also with the computers and all the materials within the journalism department that we use every day,” Hoeck said. “That’s something a lot of college papers can’t say; that they have those kinds of resources at their disposal.”
Besides offering physical and fiscal resources, the Freedom Forum provides training for Volante staff members, Reinecke said. Last weekend, the Volante staff received multi-media training from University of Montana graduate student Anne Medley and Freedom Forum multi-media education manager Val Hoeppner of Nashville, Tenn.
“We had the multi-media training at the Freedom Forum (on the USD campus),” Reinecke said. “We had eight people who participated Friday, Saturday and Sunday. They showed us video, audio and Web sites.”
But Rydell noted that USD gives the Volante two of the greatest gifts that money can’t buy — respect and editorial freedom. In fact, USD President Jim Abbott is hosting a reception for the Volante staff Friday afternoon to celebrate the Pacemaker award.
“We are an independent newspaper. There are a lot of schools where they have the provost overlooking you, and you can’t write anything negative about the administration,” Rydell said. “President Abbott doesn’t want a conflict of interest. He never interferes, and he does good interviews with us.”
Hoeck agreed with the autonomy, noting that Volante advisor Chuck Baldwin also takes a hands-off approach.
“One of the neatest parts of working for the Volante is that it is totally student run,” Hoeck said. “We have an advisor who is there if we need him, but he really doesn’t take an active role in the production. (Baldwin) just sits back and lets us run the show.”
Because of the intensity of putting together the paper, Volante staff members have developed strong bonds, Hoeck said.
“Before I came to USD, I always heard the Volante was a really solid paper. But you really can’t understand how involved everybody is until you get there,” he said. “Working for the Volante did take a lot of your time, but it forced those involved to really develop some good time-management skills because you are spending so much time working on it.”
Reinecke agreed, noting the staff develops into a family.
“The staff works so well together,” she said. “We have fun, we’re all friends and we get along well. It’s a really good atmosphere in the office.”
The Volante experience has also led to the staff members’ selection for strong internships, Rydell said.
“At USD, you get to work (on the Volante) so young, most have three or four successful internships (by graduation),” she said. “You get real-world experience.”
The Volante staff members aren’t resting on their laurels, Reinecke said.
“We always work to take it to the next level,” she said. “It’s very satisfying to know we won this (Pacemaker) award. We want to continue to do our best and put out the best product we possibly can. This has been a really great experience.”
The USD students have shown they can compete with anyone in the nation, Hoeck said.
“For a paper like the Volante at such a small school, it’s just amazing that it can compete with some of the bigger schools,” he said. “It just shows you that you don’t have to be at a large school to produce the kind of quality that the Volante does.”
Rydell agreed. “We prove South Dakota can produce quality college newspapers,” she said.
As she looks forward to graduation next spring, Rydell said she holds no regrets about remaining in Vermillion for college.
“The Neuharth Scholars is a great program, and they (USD) have one of the best journalism departments. Why go anywhere else?” she asked. “I’m doing things I couldn’t experience anyplace else.”
Rydell leaves her position as editor-in-chief at the end of the semester, with her successor to be determined. But whoever it is, she remains confident that the Volante has an excellent shot at bringing home another Pacemaker Award.
“I am leaving it in really good hands,” she said.
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