The Maroon, Loyola University’s newspaper, wins two Pacemakers – the highest honor in collegiate journalism

NEW ORLEANS – The Maroon, Loyola University’s student newspaper, won two
Pacemakers – considered the Pulitzer Prize of student journalism – at an awards
ceremony last month in New Orleans.

Associated College Press awards the Pacemaker annually to the top student news
publications in the country. The Maroon was one of 21 newspapers to receive a
Pacemaker in the newspaper/newsmagazine category in 2024 and only one of 11
winners in the Multiplatform category.

The Maroon shares the newspaper award for overall excellence this year with several of
the most elite college newspapers in the country, including The Harvard Crimson
(Harvard University), The Daily Pennsylvanian (University of Pennsylvania), The Daily
Tar Heel (University of North Carolina) and The Indiana Daily Student (University of
Indiana).

“We are almost always the smallest paper among the winning publications,” said
Michael Giusti, adviser to The Maroon, noting that Indiana’s journalism program has as
many students as the entirety of Loyola’s College of Music and Media. “We are
punching way out of our weight class. One of the most satisfying things is that
generation after generation of journalism students at Loyola is doing something right.
It’s meaningful and long-lasting.”

The Maroon won in the newspaper category in large part for its reporting on a 30-hour,
pro-Palestinian encampment in May by Loyola and Tulane University students on
Tulane’s campus, protesting the use of tuition dollars to fund Israel. Loyola students

Maleigh Crespo, Patrick Hamilton and Sophia Maxim were the newspaper’s editors-in-
chief for the 2023-24 school year.

The award in the Multiplatform category – now in its third year of the competition – is the
first for The Maroon. It honors the nation’s top collegiate media for its collective work in
print, online, email newsletter, social media and audio/video platforms.
Sheryl Kennedy Haydel, dean of the College of Music and Media, said she could not be
more proud of the work The Maroon is doing in service to the students and the larger
campus community.

6363 St. Charles Avenue, Campus Box 8, New Orleans, LA 70118, 504.865.3037, loyno.edu/cmm

“The Maroon is competing against – and besting – some of the top college newspapers
in the nation,” Haydel said. “Winning the Pacemaker three times in the last four years
shows that Loyola students not only go the extra mile, they triumph time and again.”
Giusti has been at the helm of The Maroon for the past 18 years and has played a
significant role in the newspaper’s success. The Maroon won a Pacemaker in his first
year as its adviser, in 2006, and then again in 2015, 2021, 2022 and 2024.
The newspaper also won two Pacemakers when Giusti was a student at Loyola and he
was its editor, in 1998 and 1999. The Maroon won its first two Pacemakers in 1983 and
1986.

In addition to the two Pacemakers it won this year, the Society of Professional
Journalists named The Maroon as the Best All-Around Student Newspaper (Small) in
Region 12, which comprises Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas and Tennessee, at its
annual Mark of Excellence Awards in April. As a regional winner, the honor placed The
Maroon in the top 12 college newspapers in the country.

The Maroon also swept the collegiate categories at the Press Club of New Orleans’s
66th Annual Excellence in Journalism Awards in August, as well as placed in several of
the professional categories.