CSU, Chico News

Dave Waddell, adviser to The Orion, California State University, Chico's award-winning student newspaper, has won the 2006 Distinguished Adviser Award for a four-year university or college from College Media Advisers, Inc., a national professional organization.

Waddell, who teaches in CSU, Chico's Department of Journalism, will formally receive the award at the National College Media Convention in St. Louis Oct. 29.

"What it comes down to is that I've been selected as a distinguished adviser because I've been able to work with students with the talent and commitment to put out an excellent college newspaper — week in and week out, year after year," said Waddell. "The best thing about The Orion is that it completes the process in the Department of Journalism of preparing students to be professional journalists after they leave us."

The Orion is a nine-time winner of the National Pacemaker award for general excellence, considered by many to be the top prize in college journalism, and was inducted into the Associated Collegiate Press Hall of Fame in 2005 for its record of achievement. The California Newspaper Publishers Association has named The Orion the state's best university newspaper a record eight times over the past 12 years.

Waddell holds a BA in journalism from Fresno State and an MA in English from CSU, Chico. Before joining the CSU, Chico journalism faculty in 1996, he worked 20 years in newspapers, most of it at the Redding Record Searchlight, where he rose from reporter to the position of city editor. In the summer of 2001, Waddell did a six-week summer reporting fellowship at The Sacramento Bee through the American Society of Newspaper Editors' Institute for Journalism Excellence.

"I don't know if it's interesting to anyone else but me, but when I came to Chico State in 1996, I was the 11th Orion adviser in the newspaper's 21-year history," Waddell said. "The longest previous tenure of an adviser was five years. I'm now in my 11th year, so I do think that continuity has been helpful to a publication that constantly should and does turn over its reporters and editors and managers."

Waddell is taking a hands-on role in bringing new reporters and editors to CSU, Chico via a university partnership with MediaNews Group to enroll and train journalism students from historically underrepresented populations. Waddell laid much of the groundwork for the agreement with MediaNews Group while on sabbatical last spring, when he visited 37 schools in California talking to students and teachers about journalism. Part of the $59,000 that CSU, Chico is receiving from MediaNews Group will go toward Waddell continuing recruitment efforts throughout the state.

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This entry was posted on Friday, October 20th, 2006 at 8:30 am and is filed under 2006 Fall.