Sam Bailey, a senior from Emporia State University, has been named the four-year Kansas Collegiate Journalist of the Year. To say Bailey, who grew up in Pilot Grove, Missouri, has been through the ringer is a bit of an understatement. The quality and quantity of work Bailey did in 2022 can not be discounted. Bailey helped cover the stories of tenured professors losing their jobs and of academic programs being cut — stories that later made statewide and national news. Bailey also pursued an in-depth investigative piece on the new university president and his lack of academic degrees compared to other Kansas college and university presidents, and another investigative piece about a former university student who was sued by the university for unearned aid from four years prior. Notably, Bailey was also the 2021 KCM two-year Kansas Collegiate Journalist of the Year while at Hutchinson Community College.
Mia Hennen, a sophomore from Wichita State, was the first runner-up, and Noah Eppens, a senior from Emporia State, was the second runner-up winner.