Occidental’s student-run newspaper, The Occidental, placed in the top three for seven awards and won the Best Newspaper award for the four-year colleges and universities with under 15,000 students division at the 2023 California College Media Association Awards March 9.
The senior leadership team of the Spring 2023 to Fall 2023 semesters — former Editor-In-Chiefs Anissa Basnayake (junior), Mia Anzalone (senior), Meghan Lee ’23 and current Editor-In-Chief Sebastian Lechner (senior) — received the Best Newspaper award, which spanned all issues published from Jan. 1 to Dec. 15 2023.
Monserrat Maldonado (first year) also placed first for the Best Illustration award for her art in “Opinion: I wish Cinderella was gay.”
Current senior editor Anzalone’s “Oxy SJP occupies AGC after two-day demonstration, next steps are unclear” placed second for the Best Breaking News Story.
The Occidental placed third in four categories: Lee, for Best Infographic in “College finance breakdown: Budgeting for today and 40 years from now”; Managing Editor James Miller (sophomore) for Best Sports Story for his reporting in “Occidental football held the line for more than a century, myriad factors forced a punt”; Anzalone for Best Non-Breaking News Story for “37 professors sign pro-Palestine email, face pushback from colleagues” and Arts and Culture editor Mollie Barnes (sophomore) for Best Arts and Entertainment Story for “Outside Occidental: ‘Jean-Michel Basquiat: King of Pleasure’ exhibit.”
Contact The Occidental at theoccidental@oxy.edu.
