Spectator’s mission has two parts equal in importance. We create publications and products united by a goal of helping our audience make the most of their Columbia experience. We also aim to do the same for our staff members‚ as their growth and development during their time at Spectator is just as significant to us as the work that we do.

Increasing our diversity is central to making good on this mission. If our staff is not representative of the Columbia and Barnard student bodies, we cannot comprehensively report on the communities that we serve. As such, our organization has committed not only to improving our coverage but to fostering greater diversity within our staff in how we recruit, how we train, and how we support our members.

As part of this commitment, we conducted an anonymous internal diversity survey in spring 2019 to better understand the composition of our staff and summarized the findings below. Of the people on staff at the time the survey was sent out, nearly three quarters completed it. Response rates indicated below represent the number of respondents to each question as a percentage of the entire staff, not just as a percentage of those who completed the survey. Not every question on the survey was required.

Where applicable, we broke down the results of the survey across two subsets of our staff: between leadership and non-leadership, and between our Journalism and Business & Innovations divisions. Our leadership consists of those who hold managerial positions on our Corporate, Managing, and Deputy Boards, who account for 18 percent of our staff; the remaining 82 percent includes associates and trainees. Our Journalism division produces our written and visual reporting content, while our B&I division generates our revenue, creates our digital products, and hosts and markets our public events. Journalism accounts for 73 percent of staff, and B&I accounts for 27 percent.

All comparisons made between Spectator’s staff and Columbia and Barnard populations cite data from their respective class of 2022 profiles unless otherwise specified. Of note, Columbia’s profile only includes students from Columbia College and the School of Engineering and Applied Science and does not account for students from the School of General Studies. We acknowledge this means that our analysis does not make comparisons that apply to Columbia’s entire undergraduate population.

White students are the most represented racial group at Spectator, encompassing 39 percent of our staff as compared to 53 percent in the Barnard class of 2022 and 57 percent in the Columbia class of 2022. We have a higher percentage of Asian students than both schools. We divided the Asian demographic into South Asian and East Asian options for more clarity and accuracy; neither Columbia nor Barnard reports this breakdown. White students account for the largest racial group within Journalism, while Asian students account for the largest racial group in B&I.

We have a smaller percentage of Hispanic/Latinx students than the class of 2022 from either school. We also have a smaller percentage of black/African-American students than Columbia, though slightly more than Barnard. Black/African-American and Hispanic/Latinx students are particularly underrepresented at the associate-trainee level. American Indian students are less represented at Spectator than at both Columbia and Barnard, with no representation at the associate-trainee level.

Women make up 75 percent of our staff, while men account for 22 percent and nonbinary individuals account for 2 percent. One staffer identified as transgender. The breakdown between men and women remains fairly consistent among leadership and non-leadership positions but varies between the two divisions of Spectator; the percentage of men is higher in B&I and lower in Journalism. No staffers in B&I or in leadership identify as nonbinary.

When the University’s undergraduate student body is adjusted to include Barnard’s majority-female student body, the total population is approximately 66 percent female; our representation of women is above that of the combined undergraduate schools. The University does not publicly report data on its nonbinary and transgender students.

No comparison can be made as the University does not publicly report data on the sexual orientation of its students. 

At all levels, our staff is primarily made up of undergraduates from Columbia College and Barnard, and our staff members who are SEAS students are predominantly members of B&I. We have a disproportionately low number of undergraduates from General Studies, further reflected in the fact that we have no General Studies students in leadership.

Our staff is primarily made up of first-years and sophomores, with seniors being the least represented group. However, it is important to note that the survey was conducted in the spring, and Spectator staff turnover happens on a calendar-year basis. As such, it is common practice for seniors to finish their time at Spectator in December.

Ten percent of our staff identified as first-generation college students. Much of this representation comes from the associate-trainee level, while just 2 percent of leadership is first-generation. Columbia reports that 17 percent of its students are first-generation, while at Barnard, that number is 15 percent.

Sixteen percent of our staff identified as low-income, and the percentage of low-income staffers is disproportionately lower in leadership.

The University does not publicly report data on student income levels. Columbia and Barnard both report that 18 percent of undergraduate students in their respective schools receive Pell Grants. Pell Grant recipients must "display exceptional financial need."

More than 50 percent of our staff is on some form of financial aid, on par with Columbia, which reports that "about half" of its undergraduates received some form of financial assistance. Meanwhile, at Barnard, 39 percent of students across all class years receive institutional aid of some kind.

20 percent of our total staff participated in our work-study program in spring 2019. The majority of this representation comes from the associate-trainee level; however, 36 percent of our leadership is on work-study compared to 16 percent of non-leadership.

The University does not publicly report data on the percentage of students involved in work-study.

Last spring, we conducted this survey with the aim of understanding the makeup of our current staff, which we saw as the first step in becoming a more diverse and inclusive organization. Looking forward, we aim to further make good on this commitment by implementing some changes to how we operate, both by launching new initiatives and by building on existing ones.

To start, we formed a Diversity and Inclusion Committee in the spring to examine how issues surrounding identity impact our ability to fulfill our mission—in regard to both our audience and our staff—and to establish tangible steps to increase our diversity. This year’s committee was comprised of five leaders from our Journalism and B&I divisions. It began its work by holding listening sessions explicitly focused on diversity and inclusion with each of Spectator’s 13 sections. Using feedback from staff, the committee consolidated recommendations to prioritize in the coming year, including creating greater transparency around our work-study program and increasing mentorship opportunities within the organization. The committee also spearheaded the effort to launch the diversity survey and summarize its findings in this report.

We aim to use what we learned from these conversations to continuously reflect upon and strengthen our day-to-day reporting and business practices and to facilitate more avenues through which the external community can engage with us.

In addition, we used these listening sessions to understand the efficacy of our work-study program. The program has grown exponentially in the past few years and has made Spectator a more accessible organization for students from all socioeconomic backgrounds. However, there is still more that we can be doing. 

Using feedback from staff, we provided more detailed and transparent guidelines regarding the process of seeking employment through our work-study program, both for our staff and for applicants to Spectator. Financial need is not a factor in Spectator’s application process, and work-study is guaranteed for all students’ first semester on staff. In addition, expanding work opportunities for low-income students at Spectator is something we have continuously pushed for, and as such, work-study remains a top fundraising priority. We will continue to seek financial support from alumni and other parties interested in supporting the increasing socioeconomic diversity of our staff.

We welcome feedback from the community on this inaugural report and on any issues of diversity and inclusion as they pertain to Spectator. Please reach out to us at editor@columbiaspectator.com with any questions, concerns, or feedback you may have. We look forward to discussing with you.

1. Data collected is from March 2019 and includes spring 2019 recruits. Staff members temporarily taking time off from Spectator were included in data analysis for consistency purposes.


2. The survey was entirely voluntary for staff. Other than two questions asking about division and staff level, all other questions on the survey were optional. At least 90 percent of survey respondents answered each question.


3. Percentages may not sum to 100 due to rounding.