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Press Club honors UH journalist

Cougar News Staff

A news writer for The Daily Cougar took top honors at the Houston Press Club's Lone Star awards in a category to honor news coverage by Texas student reporters.

Ray Hafner, who was a senior staff writer for the Cougar during 2002-2003, earned first place for his coverage of a mold infestation in the Roy G. Cullen Building that was making faculty members sick. Hafner also earned second place for a story about UH President Arthur K. Smith's State of the University address to the Faculty Senate last fall.

"It was fun to win, but next year The Daily Cougar is going to win first place in all the categories," said Hafner, a junior print journalism major.

The competition took student entries from across the state that were published or originated in Texas during 2002. The annual awards ceremony gave out nearly 200 awards to Texas writers and journalists in TV, print, radio and online media.

Hafner's mold story gave a "good explanation of an increasingly controversial issue," Lone Star awards judges commented on the Houston Press Club's Web site (www.houstonpressclub.org).

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