Incoming 'DP' board honored at gala

The Daily Pennsylvanian held its annual banquet this Saturday at the Inn at Penn, celebrating the official changing of the guard from the 120th to the 121st Board of Editors and Managers.

The event brought together current and former staff members along with their family and friends and, among other festivities, included a speech by University President Amy Gutmann and a slew of awards and honors.

DP alumnus and senior White House correspondent and BusinessWeek national political reporter Richard Dunham was the keynote speaker for the evening. He reminded those gathered about what it meant to be a reporter while a Penn student in the mid '70s during the time of Watergate, encouraging those in attendance to keep questioning authority in their reporting.

College junior and incoming Executive Editor David Burrick set the tone of the night when he recounted three of his most memorable experiences with the DP.

All three were car accidents.

The first two happened under the auspices of former Senior Sports Editor Andrew "Drugs" Delaney who, on a trip covering a basketball game at Dartmouth, "first gently hit the woman in front of us" and an hour later drove the car into the snowbank.

The third one was due to Burrick's own ineptitude at driving.

But ending on a more serious note Burrick reminded the crowd that the DP is central to providing the campus community dependable information and "innovative and interesting" content. And his promise was to continue the great tradition for one more year, while maintaining a creative and fun environment.

"I loved the musical selection," Burrick said. "It hit on all the crappy music from the '60s, '70s, '80s,'90s and today."

Among the awards given out during the evening, three carried monetary prizes and were presented by the DP Alumni Associations. But most of the evening was overshadowed by the J. Gordon Spector Memorial Random Hook-up Award. Early on, there were several frontrunners for the award, including a former DP executive editor and a former beat reporter. Another duo of candidates consisted of an advertising manager and an editorial page editor.

However, by the end of the night it was confirmed that the coveted award was split between a news editor and a photo editor.

Burrick said that the award proved that the new board was well on its way in accomplishing his goals.

"I want to have good relations between the different departments and this exemplifies how people are working together," he said.

Outgoing Managing Editor Haley Shapley dazzled the crowd with her red dress. But some, like dailypennsylvanian.com Editor-in-Chief Matthew Jones had questions about the logistics of the dress.

"Did she need two tickets for it?" he asked.

Others had questions surrounding Shapley's outrageous consumption of free alcohol at the bar. Unconfirmed reports cited Design Dictator Alex Bellos as having taken full advantage of the bar as well.

Unlike most attendees, outgoing Editorial Page Editor Eliot Sherman had no recollections of the banquet and when asked for comment simply replied "I don't know."

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