Spectator’s mission has two parts of equal importance. The first is an external mission: to serve our audience by providing coverage, products, events, and services that inform and connect members of the Columbia, Morningside Heights, and West Harlem communities. The second is an internal mission: to serve our staff by supporting their social, intellectual, and professional growth and development.

Increasing and maintaining staff diversity is central to fulfilling this mission. We strive to have a staff that is representative of the communities we serve. As such, our organization has committed not only to improving the scope and depth of our coverage but also to fostering greater diversity within our staff through our recruitment, training, and staff support infrastructure.

As part of this commitment, we conducted a voluntary, anonymous internal diversity survey in April 2022 to better understand the composition of our staff, following our 2019 staff diversity report. At the time, approximately half—48.58 percent—of our 424-person staff completed it.

Our organization can be divided by two main identifiers: Journalism/Business & Innovations and leadership/non-leadership. Our leadership consists of those who hold managerial positions on our corporate, managing, and deputy boards, who account for 25.24 percent of respondents. Associates and trainees make up another 70.39 percent, with the remaining 4.37 percent of respondents preferring not to disclose their leadership status.

In 2022, white students were the most represented racial group at Spectator, making up 45.15 percent of respondents, followed by East Asian students, making up 36.89 percent. Native American/Indigenous and Middle Eastern staffers were the least represented groups at Spectator, composing 0.97 percent and 3.88 percent of respondents, respectively.

Women made up 72.82 percent of respondents, men made up 22.33 percent, and nonbinary individuals made up 3.40 percent.  

In 2022, survey respondents were majority heterosexual by a slim margin, with heterosexual staffers making up 50.97 percent of respondents. In contrast, pansexual and asexual staffers were the least represented at Spectator, each making up 0.97 percent of the respondents.

Among the four undergraduate colleges, respondents were primarily Columbia College students. General Studies students are the least represented at Spectator, making up only 2.91 percent of respondents.

Respondents skewed toward underclassmen, with first-years composing 33.50 percent of the respondents and sophomores composing 41.26 percent of the respondents.

19.42 percent of respondents identified as first-generation low-income. At 77.18 percent, over a two-thirds majority of respondents did not identify as FLI.

More survey respondents were on financial aid than not, with 47.57 percent of survey respondents on financial aid and 44.17 percent not on financial aid. Of total respondents, 8.25 percent preferred not to disclose their financial aid status.

A minority of respondents, 23.3 percent, were on work study. 74.27 percent of respondents were not on work study, and 2.43 percent of respondents preferred not to disclose.

We aim to foster greater diversity through initiatives that support our current staffers and welcome new talent.

Beginning in 2022, we established a formal Head of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the managing board leadership level. This role’s purpose is twofold: to maintain a comfortable and productive environment at Spectator, and to ensure that Spectator’s products, content, events, and services are reflective of our DEI values. These efforts help Spectator maintain strong relationships with the communities we serve and minimize harm within our reporting and outreach efforts.

In 2023, we implemented more robust training and sensitivity programs at all leadership levels, created a system for DEI content advisory across journalism sections, streamlined all-staff communications regarding work-study processes, increased opportunities for staffers to voice DEI concerns, and established affinity groups based on race, ethnicity, and religion. We strive to continue building out infrastructure that supports staffers’ development and upward mobility at Spectator, with the hope that these efforts will implicitly improve and increase our diversity.

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