The Princeton Review ranked the Daily Lobo as the No. 2 "Great College Newspaper" in the country last week, putting the Lobo ahead of papers at Yale (No. 6), Duke (No. 13) and Harvard (No. 18).
Howard University in Washington, D.C., holds the top spot.
"I think it shows students appreciate the hard work of the Lobo staff in developing the paper, and therefore that they use the paper for information," said Bob Gassaway, chair of UNM's Student Publications Board. "The Lobo staff should be very proud of what it has accomplished."
The Princeton Review is published yearly and ranks 357 schools using student surveys. Robert Franek, the series' author, said all of UNM's surveys were filled out online this year.
"I think it's a truly representative sample of the students at your school and the other 350 schools in the book," Franek said. "We're in a unique position, and we interviewed over 110,000 kids this year."
According to its Web site, the Princeton Review monitors 2,000 colleges each year. Evaluators select schools they have a high opinion of to begin the survey process. Afterward, representatives travel to universities and set up booths in dining halls, student unions or take out ads in school papers.
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Review representatives get approximately 300 surveys from each school filled out by randomly selected undergraduate students.
"I don't read it everyday, but yes, I trust the information in the Lobo," UNM student Arely Rincon said.
John White, a graduate student, said he reads the front page three or four times a week just to see what's going on around campus, but said the paper is mostly focused on undergraduates.
"I remember the incident at Sigma Chi a couple years back," he said. "The Lobo followed it and was able to disseminate the story to a lot of people so they could react collectively. That was really important."
The edition includes 64 ranking lists, and the top 20 are published. The only other place UNM appears in the edition is in the No. 14 slot of "Teaching Assistants Teach Too Many Upper Level Classes" list.
"I'm not sure everybody realizes that we put together a good staff every year," Gassaway said. "We select the editor, and the editor selects the staff. The Lobo has developed a fine newspaper over the years and deserves it."
