RICHARDSON, Texas (April 9, 2003) - Staff members of The UTD Mercury, the student-run newspaper at The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD), were recognized for their work last weekend in Corpus Christi at the 95th annual conference of the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association (TIPA), the oldest and largest press association of its kind in the United States.

The Mercury staff captured seven honors, including a first place award for feature photography by Maria Jaral. Editor Clint Stewart took second place honors for headline writing, and The Mercury staff came in third in the editorial writing category. Honorable mention honors went to Managing Editor Walter Voit for both live headline writing and feature page design and to Jaral for sports action photography and to Advertising Managers Kristen Sutton and Tomas Lopez in the ad series category.

In the overall sweepstakes competition, The Mercury finished 10th out of the 29 schools competing in its division, which is made up of colleges and universities in Texas with enrollments of more than 7,999 and that publish newspapers less than four times per week.

Six members of the newspaper staff attended the conference, at which the students also attended presentations by leading professional journalists.

"I'm very proud of the work the members of The Mercury staff have done this year," advisor Jay Miller said. "It is nice to see Clint and his team get this kind of recognition."

The UTD Mercury is published on Mondays at two-week intervals during the school year, except holidays and exam periods, and once every three weeks during the summer. The newspaper is available online at http://www.utdallas.edu/student/mercury/.

Established in 1909, TIPA works to open channels of communication and cooperation among student media programs at two and four-year colleges and universities in Texas. Some of those media include student newspapers, newsletters, yearbooks, magazines and radio and television stations.

About UTD
The University of Texas at Dallas, located at the convergence of Richardson, Plano and Dallas in the heart of the complex of major multinational technology corporations known as the Telecom Corridor, enrolls more than 13,000 students. The school's freshman class traditionally stands at the forefront of Texas state universities in terms of average SAT scores. The university offers a broad assortment of bachelor's, master's and doctoral degree programs. For additional information about UTD, please visit the university's Web site at http://www.utdallas.edu/.