USA Today Ends Student Award Programs

By BECKIE SUPIANO

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USA Today is suspending its popular programs recognizing students at four-year and two-year colleges, largely due to budgetary constraints.

The programs, the All-USA College Academic Team and the All-USA Community College Academic Team, provided annual cash awards of $2,500 to 20 undergraduate "all-stars" at four-year colleges and 20 at community colleges who excelled in and beyond the classroom. The award winners and 40 honorable-mention students in each program also were featured in the newspaper.

Several college officials and experts expressed concern that USA Today's move is part of a broader trend of newspapers cutting back on coverage of higher education. That means colleges often receive attention only when there is a problem, said Larry D. Lauer, vice chancellor of marketing and communications at Texas Christian University.

The high-profile free publicity is what set USA Today's program apart from other award programs, said Rodney K. Ferguson, managing director and principal of Lipman Hearne, a marketing firm that works with colleges and other nonprofit groups.

"It was very important at lesser-known schools when one of their students was accepted," he said. "They will miss it more than Harvard, Yale, Stanford, or Chicago."

USA Today is discontinuing similar programs recognizing teachers and high-school students. Its all-USA athletic teams will continue, but those do not include a scholarship component.

The newspaper would like to revive the college programs at some point and is looking for sponsors that could help, said Heidi M. Zimmerman, the paper's director of communications.

The community colleges program has always been administered by the honor society Phi Theta Kappa, which plans to find a new sponsor and continue it in some form, said Rod A. Risley, the organization's executive director. The group just won't be able to generate the same level of publicity, he said.

That publicity was particularly important to community colleges, which typically get even less ink in the mainstream press than their four-year counterparts.

"It highlighted our students who've overcome tremendous obstacles to get where they are and are honors students," said George R. Boggs, president of the American Association of Community Colleges. "It raised the visibility of community colleges."

Patricia L. MacCorquodale, dean of the honors college at the University of Arizona, said her institution will miss the visibility as well. A few of her students would apply each year, and the university has had several winners. "Universities take pride in these kinds of things," Ms. MacCorquodale said.

So did the paper. "We hated this happening, said Dennis Kelly, a senior assignment editor at USA Today. "We love those teams."