Louisiana Tech’s yearbook, the Lagniappe, and student newspaper, The Tech Talk, have award-winning advisers. Louisiana Press Women has announced its 2011 Communications Contest winners and named Mary May Brown, Lagniappe adviser, the collegiate publications faculty adviser of the year.  Brown has been adviser to the yearbook for 23 years and is retiring this month from Tech. “The students on the yearbook staff do excellent work, and this award among others is proof positive,” said Dr. Reginald Owens, chair of the journalism department.  “They work hard and spend long hours to produce a quality product.  We are proud of their work.  This is not the only award they have received this year.  They have also been cited for top quality work by the yearbook publisher who selects top-quality yearbooks from all over the country to recognize in a national publication.  This is the second year they have received such recognition.  It is due in no small measure to the caring and hard work of Mary Brown, who will be retiring at the end of the school year.” The Lagniappe was designated “First Class” by the Associated Collegiate Press and was included in the top 2 percent of yearbooks in Balfour Publishing’s “The Yearbook Yearbook,” which recognizes the top 47 high school and collegiate yearbooks in the country. Additionally, Owens, along with co-advisers Dr. Elizabeth Barfoot Christian, an assistant professor of journalism, and Judith Roberts, instructor of journalism, were awarded second-place in LPW’s collegiate publications faculty adviser category for The Tech Talk, the weekly newspaper that is the student voice of the university.