Patricia Meisol, higher education reporter for The Sun, has won a Lincoln University of Missouri award for her May 1990 four-part series of articles about challenges posed by racial diversity at the University of Maryland's College Park campus.

Ms. Meisol won for her entry, "Expelling Intolerance," which was recognized for outstanding coverage of minority issues in the series category for reporting of education in the Missouri university's Unity Awards in Media competition.

Ms. Meisol, who spent much of the academic year getting to know students, examined how racial attitudes affected what they learned and how well.

Her report, published in The Sun May 20 through May 23, looked at black students' coming of age at a historically white campus, their struggle for equality, their adjustment to academic demands and the effort to crush old stereotypes.

Ms. Meisol, formerly a reporter for the St. Petersburg Times in Florida, joined The Sun's metropolitan staff in 1988.

The recognition of her articles in The Sun was announced last night at the 38th annual awards program of Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Mo.