Eight awards were presented to The Clarion on Feb. 27 as part of the Wisconsin Newspaper Association Foundation’s Collegiate Newspaper Contest. The awards were presented during the WNA’s annual convention held in Waukesha.

Stephanie Beirne Leuer received a first-place award in feature writing for an article entitled, “Instructor goes from Bunsen Burner to Dutch Oven,” published in March 2014.

Andrea DeBauche got a second place award in the freedom of information category for an opinion article from October 2013 entitled, “Unlimited political contributions put a price on free speech.”

A second-place award in general web excellence was presented to Charles Schomaker, who led a web site re-design at the start of the fall 2014 semester.

Ryan Spoehr received a third-place award in the investigative reporting category for an article that appeared in December 2013 examining the Public Safety Office’s proposal to arm its full-time officers with Tasers.

Three awards were presented to The Clarion in the best advertisement category. George Treviranus took second place, Robin Gee received a third-place award and Anna Klawitter got honorable mention.

Finally, the newspaper took third place in overall general excellence for newspapers that are published weekly or less frequently. The general excellence award was based on editions of the newspaper published from Oct. 1, 2013, through Sept. 30, 2014.