Skip navigation Jump to main navigation

Our Spring 2025 and Summer 2025 applications are open!

Close alert

CSPA Edmund J. Sullivan Award

Executive Director Edmund J. Sullivan with 2014 Edmund J. Sullivan Award Recipients.

CSPA Edmund J. Sullivan Award

The Edmund J. Sullivan Award recognizes student editors who pursue innovative ways to present the truth on behalf of their audiences. Here, former CSPA Executive Director Edmund J. Sullivan presents the award to awardees in 2014.

The Edmund J. Sullivan Award recognizes student editors who pursue innovative ways to present the truth on behalf of their audiences. This award may be given to a single student or a group of students.

Suggestions for suitable candidates should be emailed to the director at cspa [[at]] columbia [[dot]] edu, following the criteria.

The award is discretionary. If presented, it is given at the Association's annual Spring Convention in March at Columbia University.

Award Criteria
Along with proof of a sustained effort to take responsibility for their own expression in a student print or broadcast medium, there must also be evidence that Sullivan Award recipients have shown extraordinary idealism, resilience and pragmatism while trying to serve students in their audiences.

Accordingly, nominations must include:

1. A 500-word essay by the student(s) chronicling and interpreting the significance of the effort;

2. Documentation in the form of articles, correspondence, broadcasts or issues’ and

3. Letters of support from an adviser or other faculty member, an individual in the audience, and a member of the professional media.

Under advisement from the CSPAA Honors and Awards Committee and on a discretionary rather than annual basis, the CSPAA Board will designate a recipient. The chair of the CSPAA Honors Committee will present the award during the CSPA Spring Convention.

Find past recipients here.