For the second year in a row, SFSU's student-run Golden Gate [X]press received the prestigious Newspaper Pacemaker award from the Associated Collegiate Press, a national association of college journalists. The [X]press was recognized along with 16 other student papers, including those at Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Announced in November, the award is based on quality and scope of reporting, visual presentation, and editorial leadership in the 2001-02 academic year.

Outstanding Student Journalist Awards

Recently three students on the [X]press also received special honors from the Northern California chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), a 9,000-member national association that promotes freedom and ethics in journalism.

Adam Ashton, Nada Behziz and Greg Kozocas earned the SPJ's Outstanding Student Journalist award. The award recognized Behziz, a journalism senior, and Kozocas, who finished his bachelor of arts in journalism in the spring, for their in-depth research and reporting at the [X]press. Kozocas said the winning article on faculty promotions came out of "absolutely a team effort" and took months to investigate and write.

"Many of the Journalism Department advisers worked closely with us to ensure that our story was impartial and even-handed to all sides," said Behziz.

"My two years on the [X]press taught me how to dig up information for a tense investigation, how to build good relationships with reliable sources, and how to encourage my colleagues to do the same," said Ashton, chosen for his coverage of student government in the spring and his work on the [X]press throughout the year.

"I hope my stories reflected a campus with a sense of community," Ashton said.

A geography and English literature major, Ashton was [X]press editor in fall 2001 when the paper ran its award-winning coverage of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. That coverage earned the national Best of Show prize at the 2001 Associated Collegiate Press convention.