FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - The University of Arkansas student-operated television station (UATV) won a first place award in a national competition this past weekend. The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Mark of Excellence Award for best non-daily newscast among college stations was awarded to the show produced last year by UA students. UATV student manager Shelton Jacobs accepted the award at a ceremony in Fort Worth, Texas.

In addition to the national award, the University of Arkansas SPJ student chapter was recognized as the top chapter in region 12, which includes school from Arkansas, Tennessee, Louisiana and Mississippi. UA chapter president Jennifer Marberry was on hand to accept the award.

"We knew these students were good and that they were well-trained," said Patsy Watkins, chairman of the Lemke journalism department. "But it is a tremendous boost to our broadcast program to have the SPJ judges recognize it too. This is national confirmation of the quality of our program, our students and our faculty."

"Arkansas on Campus" is a weekly news program produced by students in broadcast news reporting II taught by Larry Foley, associate professor of journalism and faculty advisor to UATV. News packages are produced by students in Foley’s TV reporting II. Voice-over video stores are produced in TV reporting I, taught by Dale Carpenter, UA associate professor of journalism.

According to Foley, this is the first national award for UATV. Since 1997, he said, UATV student productions have won regional SPJ Mark of Excellence awards, competing with colleges and universities in Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana.

"When I came here in 1993, it was my goal to build our broadcast journalism program into one of the premier programs in the nation," Foley said. "Since that time, we have put UATV on the air, giving our students many creative opportunities that prepare them for quality jobs in television news and production."

This is not the first time the UA’s broadcast journalism department was been honored. Recently, a faculty-student produced documentary, "Sanatorium Hill," won platinum best of show award from the Aurora Film and Video competition in Salt Lake City, Utah. The documentary has also been nominated for two Emmy awards. Foley has been nominated for writing (non-news), and James Greeson, professor in the UA music department, has been nominated for the best musical score for a documentary.

"This national SPJ award indicates that we have arrived on the national scene," Foley said. "It means the student news programming coming out of the journalism classrooms and labs at the U of A, are up there with the best of the very best."