Second place this year is a tie between Phillip Henry and Sam Reveley. I’m told the voting this year was very close.

The John Locher Memorial Award was established in 1986 to honor the best college editorial cartoonists. The award is named after the late son of Dick and Mary Locher. As the winner, Ben will receive a trip to this year’s Association of American Editorial Cartoonists convention in Washington DC as well as $1,000.

I’ll post samples of Ben’s work when I can.

The award was first given in 1980 and several recipients have gone into syndicated comic strips, editorial cartooning and two have received the Pulitzer Prize. The list of winners was difficult to track down, so in the interest of creating a findable list, here are the 29 recipients recognized as the best college cartoonists of their day.

• 2010 John Vestevich
• 2009 Christopher Sharron
• 2008 Grant Snider
• 2007 William Warren
• 2006 Erin Russell
• 2005 Russell Gottwaldt
• 2004 Nathaniel R. Creekmore
• 2003 Nathaniel R. Creekmore
• 2002 Steven Olexa
• 2001 Nate Beeler
• 2000 Barry Deutsch
• 1999 Ryan Pagelow
• 1998 Audra Ann Furuichi
• 1997 Brian Farrington
• 1996 Jody D. Lindke
• 1995 Drew Sheneman
• 1994 Duk Cho
• 1993 John de Rosier
• 1992 No award given
• 1991 Steve Breen
• 1990 Kerry Soper
• 1989 Nick Anderson
• 1988 Christopher Kalb
• 1987 Michael L. Thompson
• 1986 V. Gene Myers
• 1985 Thomas Cheney
• 1984 Richard Orlin
• 1983 Frank Pauer
• 1982 Harley Schwadron
• 1981 Paul Kolsti
• 1980 Richard Codor

From the Huffington Post:

Other people have signed on to the petition with their own reasons for support. Most of them reflect Quazi’s position that this isn’t about agreeing with the cartoon, but sticking up for Eisner’s right to have an unpopular cartoon.

One signer said on the Change.org website, where the petition is hosted, that “It was a cowardly decision to fire her.” Another person, who claimed they worked for The Daily Texan in the 1980s, said “We had numerous cartoons that I didn’t agree with, but not once would we ever have considered firing someone for basically doing her job.”

The petition, which currently stands at 236 supporters, states:

Unfortunately, a minority within the campus community perceived racism within the cartoon itself and in the resultant controversy pressured the editorial staff to fire Eisner. Disappointingly, the editorial board complied to this vitriolic and narrow-minded minority and it removed Ms. Eisner from its staff.

The decision is an insult to journalistic independence, our national values of free speech and a free press, and the right to dissent from popular or prevailing viewpoints. Regardless of one’s views of the cartoon itself, we find it alarming that Ms. Eisner would be shunned and silenced for expressing her views.

Eisner apologized yesterday stating:

I feel the news should be unbiased. And in the retelling of this particular event, I felt that that was not the case. My story compared this situation to yellow journalism in the past, where aspects of news stories were blown out of proportion with the intention of selling papers and enticing emotions.

The paper’s editorial board has also apologized and announced that the cartoonist was no longer on staff.

However, the decision to run the cartoon showed a failure in judgment on the part of the editorial board. We have engaged in meaningful dialogue with many people who shared their concerns and outrage with us.

We made a mistake, and we understand that the outcome of our action extends beyond Tuesday’s cartoon and prompts us to reflect on a larger problem that persists at The Daily Texan and on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin, something we should have done before Tuesday’s paper ran.

The deadline for entering this year is March 15. Visit the AAEC’s website for eligibility.

The AAEC/John Locher Memorial Award was founded in 1986 by members of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists. They felt the need to establish an award that would not only honor the memory of John Locher, but also would help discover young cartoonists and stimulate interest in editorial cartooning among college-age students in North America. It’s named after the late son of Dick and Mary Locher.

“The cartoons make statements, spark conversations, and inspire action. They help us communicate our belief in the power of entrepreneurship in organizations of all shapes and sizes and our strategy to lead the advancement of Entrepreneurship of All Kinds (R) to make a better world,” says Babson President Len Schlesinger.

More information about the partnership over on BostInno.

“When I was a kid, we didn’t have to learn how to be entrepreneurs,” MacLeod said. “Those jobs that were waiting for me, aren’t waiting for them anymore.”

MacLeod called Babson one of the only schools “situated for the new reality,” claiming that traditional academia is really only well suited for the scientist or academic.

So I wasn’t surprised as I read through the list of most controversial papers. What I found interesting was the 40% were due to a cartoon that ran in the paper.

For rules and entry information, visit the NCS Foundation’s website.

Here’s coverage from the local ABC affiliate.

University of New Mexico African-American students are demanded and received an apology from the student paper, The Daily Lobo, after it ran a cartoon depicting the scene from The Lion King where the monkey Rafiki holds up the young Simba lion cub, but in the drawing President Barak Obama was the Rafiki character holding Osama Bin Laden’s head.

The editor took responsibility for the outrage and took steps to remedy it, including issuing the apology and vowing to have staff attend African-American Student Services and go through sensitivity training.

Along with the apology, the editor offered information on why the cartoon was printed in the first place.

Third, we must make it clear that we did not run the cartoon with the intent to be racist. We saw the cartoon as an interpretation of Osama bin Laden’s death and the American celebration along with it. We saw the cartoon as a symbol of the twisted nature of American pride and thought it would provoke interesting, not racist, discussion. Since we can only speculate as to the intent of the cartoon, I contacted the artist, Hajo de Reijer.

“It wasn’t my intention to be racist. And it will never be,” he said. “U.S. President Barack Obama tweaked Donald Trump at the annual White House correspondents’ dinner over the fuss he made over his place of birth. Obama showed the opening scene from the movie ‘Lion King,’ showing baby Simba being born to his Lion King father.”

De Reijer said his cartoon was simply a reflection of a current event. In full disclosure, De Reijer is from the Netherlands and is not necessarily attuned to the racial undertones of such a depiction of Obama in America.

We bring this up not to justify the cartoon’s content, but to try to foster understanding of our editorial decision to run it.

Here’s a news report from KOBTV.