In February 2019, Spectator published a staff editorial addressing the ways in which our coverage has failed students of color. Specifically, we sought to highlight how both our staff and the journalism we produce has not been fully representative of the Columbia and Barnard student body, and how without this representation, we cannot adequately and comprehensively report on the communities we serve. As such, we laid out a commitment to not only improving our coverage but to building a more diverse staff, in everything from how we recruit, train, and support our members.
As part of this commitment to growing staff diversity, we conducted an anonymous internal diversity survey to better understand who makes up our staff, the findings of which are summarized below. Of the 302 people on staff at the time the survey was sent out, 222 staffers (74%) completed it. Though this does not account for everyone, we believe the survey’s findings are representative of our current staff.
We compared the results of our survey to publicly available enrollment data as reported in the Class of 2022 profiles for Columbia and Barnard. Of note, Columbia’s profile only includes Columbia College and Engineering students and does not account for General Studies students. We acknowledge that this means our analysis does not always make comparisons that apply to Columbia’s entire undergraduate population, a challenge that is further exacerbated by Spectator’s lack of GS students on our own staff.
Where applicable, we also broke down the results of the survey across two subsets of our staff: between leadership and non-leadership, and between our Journalism division and Business & Innovations division. Our leadership consists of those who hold managerial positions, which includes members of our Corporate, Managing, and Deputy Boards and accounts for 55 staffers (18%). The remainder of our staff are associates and trainees, accounting for 247 staffers (82%). 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 is made up of 218 staffers (73%) and B&I is made up of 80 staffers (27%).
Our staff comes from 32 U.S. states, with California, New York, New Jersey, and Texas being the four most represented. Columbia reports having students from all 50 states, while Barnard reports having students from 40. At both schools, New York, New Jersey, California, and Texas are also among the top 10 most represented states.
Internationally, our staff hails from 28 countries, with the highest representation coming from China, India, Canada, and South Korea. Columbia has students from 69 countries while Barnard has students from 23. Our staff is 25% international, while Columbia is 16% and Barnard is 10%.
At all levels, our staff is primarily made up of undergraduates from Columbia College and Barnard, and our population of SEAS students is predominantly accounted for in B&I. We have a disproportionately low number of undergraduates from the School of General Studies, reflected in the fact that we have no GS students in leadership.
Our staff is primarily made up of freshmen and sophomores, while seniors are the least represented.
Our staff has a smaller percentage of white students than both Columbia and Barnard, though white students are still the majority racial group. However, we have a higher percentage of Asian students than both schools (we divided Asian into South Asian and East Asian for more clarity and accuracy; both Columbia and Barnard do not report this breakdown).
White students account for the highest representation in Journalism, while Asian students account for the highest representation in B&I.
We have a smaller percentage of Hispanic/Latinx students than both schools, and a smaller percentage of black students than Columbia, though slightly more than Barnard. Black and Hispanic/Latinx students are particularly underrepresented at the associate-trainee level. Additionally, we have a smaller percentage of American Indian students than both Columbia and Barnard, with no representation at the associate-trainee level.
Our staff is predominantly women, who make up 75% of our staff, while men account for 22% and nonbinary individuals account for 2%. The breakdown between men and women remains fairly consistent among leadership and non-leadership, though the percentage of men is higher in B&I and lower in Journalism. Nonbinary staffers are not represented in B&I or in leadership.
When Columbia’s undergraduate student body is adjusted to include Barnard’s majority female student body, the total population is approximately 66% female, meaning our representation of women is above that of the combined undergraduate schools.
Staff members who identify as transgender are not represented in this report in an effort to respect their privacy. Additionally, the University does not publicly report data on its nonbinary or transgender students.
Of the 217 staffers who self-reported sexual orientation, 63% identified as straight while 2% of respondents preferred not to identify their sexual orientation. The remaining 35% identified under the following categories: gay or lesbian, bisexual, asexual, queer, questioning, or other; however, we chose to not disclose the percentage of people within each category in an effort to respect the privacy of our staff.
The University does not publicly report data on the sexuality of its students.
16% of our staff identified as low-income, and the percentage of low-income staffers is disproportionately lower in leadership.
Though University does not publicly report data on student income levels, Columbia and Barnard both report that 18% of undergraduate students receive Pell grants. Pell grant recipients must “demonstrate financial need.”
10% of our staff identified as first-generation. Much of this representation comes from leadership, while just 2% of staff at the associate-trainee level is first-generation. Columbia reports that 17% of its students are first-generation, while at Barnard the number is 15%.
More than 50% of our staff are on some form of financial aid, which is on par with Columbia, which reports that “about half” of its undergraduates received some form of financial assistance. Meanwhile, at Barnard 39% of students receive institutional aid of some kind.
61 staffers—or 20%—participate in our work-study program. The majority of this representation comes from the associate-trainee level; however, 36% of our leadership is on work-study compared to 16% of non-leadership.
The University does not publicly report data on the percentage of students involved in work-study.
The goal of this survey, the first of its kind at Spectator, was to understand who comprises our staff, so that we can become a more diverse and inclusive office.
Recruitment: Spectator is committed to recruiting more students currently underrepresented at Spectator, especially those from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups, namely students who are black and Hispanic/Latinx, and those from the School of General Studies. As part of this commitment, we will use more accessible recruitment practices that lower the barrier of entry to Spectator. For instance, our Product team requires no prior coding experience and our Design team does not require the submission of an art portfolio. Similarly, we have purchased a staff camera so that joining our Photo team does not require ownership of camera equipment.
Work-Study: Additionally, we hope to provide more transparent details regarding the process of seeking employment through our work-study program, both for our staff and for applicants to Spectator (work-study is not a factor when being considered for a role at Spectator). Additionally, expanding opportunities for low-income students to work at Spectator is a priority of ours, and as such. work-study is our top fundraising priority for 2019. We continually seek financial support from alumni and other parties interested in funding the increasing socioeconomic diversity of our staff and hope that one day Spectator will be able to cover the full work-study need of its staff.
Inaugural committee on Diversity & Inclusion: In spring of 2019, Spectator formed an inaugural Diversity and Inclusion Committee to create a dedicated space for conversation around issues of diversity and inclusion and action around improving both. This committee, which is currently comprised of four leadership members across both the Journalism and B&I divisions of the company, has undertaken a number of efforts to increase visibility for issues of diversity and inclusion at Spectator since its inception. Moving forward, the committee will continue to foster transparent and honest conversation internally, ensuring that we are constantly reevaluating and strengthening our day-to-day reporting and business practices, and plans to facilitate more avenues through which the external community can more directly engage with us.
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