Community Standards

official statement

Spectator aims to produce impactful journalism and products by developing staff professionally and supporting their personal growth. Conversations with our staff and members of Columbia’s community have demonstrated that ethical and meaningful journalism can only happen in an environment in which all staffers feel safe and protected from misconduct by other members of the Spectator community. 

Misconduct and ambiguity around how to best address it is an unfortunate reality on college campuses and within student organizations like Spectator. To help ensure accountability and effectively foster a safe environment, Spectator’s 144th Managing Board, Corporate Board, and Board of Trustees have created and adopted a set of community standards. The document below outlines standards of conduct, and potential disciplinary measures for violations of those standards, that all staff members must agree to abide by to participate in Spectator. 

While Spectator leadership has discussed the creation of similar guidelines in past years, such a document did not exist due to a lack of consensus about the process, responsibilities, and enforcement of such guidelines. The difficulty of these discussions demonstrated the importance of clarity around Spectator’s stance and revealed shortcomings the organization should address. In September 2020, leadership took concerted steps toward creating transparent guidelines, including temporarily withholding content to expedite the process and consulting other student papers such as the Daily Orange, the Michigan Daily, and the Yale Daily News.

These guidelines are by no means the only solution to maintaining the safety and growth of staffers at Spectator; the culture of a student organization is mainly informed by the daily actions and core values of its members. In this process, we aim to create clear channels of trust and communication between ourselves and all who engage with our company to create a space where our staffers can thrive.