Observer Diversity Report Fall 2022

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Diversity Report Fall 2022

Letter From the Editors

Dear Reader,

At The Fordham Observer, our primary mission is to uplift and platform the voices of undergraduate students at Fordham. As part of that goal, we are dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive community within our organization and across the university as a whole.

Today, we are releasing the second annual Staff Diversity Report in an effort to maintain transparency and accountability. In the words of our predecessors, we hold that “it is only by acknowledging where we are that we can take steps to get to where we need to be.”

In this report, you will find a transparent examination of the diversity of our editorial board (e-board) — analyzed along lines of ethnicity, sexuality, financial need and other factors — as well as a reflection on our efforts to move toward a more equitable newsroom and newspaper. We use Fordham’s undergraduate demographic data in order to determine how closely The Observer represents the university community.

One of the most glaring disparities in the makeup of The Observer staff in the 2022-2023 school year is that Latin American and Hispanic students are underrepresented when compared to Fordham’s undergraduate population. In contrast, students of Asian descent are overrepresented.

In the past year, our first and founding adviser, Elizabeth Stone, announced the Many Voices award which offers young Observer journalists the opportunity to receive funds for their efforts at The Observer. This award was developed for historically underrepresented students in an effort to promote diversity. The first prize will be given out in spring 2023. Additionally, The Observer announced the first annual Observer’s Scholarship in March 2022, with the first one being awarded this fall. The goal of this scholarship is to provide a form of compensation for members of our contributors and build the foundation for The Observer to be an accessible platform for all students.

Our efforts are ongoing, and by releasing this report, we aim to track our progress on an annual basis because diversity, equity and inclusion are an integral part of The Observer’s mission. Thank you for reading.

Sincerely,

Editor-in-Chief | Allie Stofer

Managing Editor | Maddie Sandholm

Online Editors | Emily Ellis and Kreena Vora Creative Director | Alexa Stegmuller

Notes on Data Collection

The Observer’s Staff Diversity Report highlights the demographics of its e-board. This includes both the editors who direct our coverage (full and assistant) as well as team members who focus on maintaining the operations of The Observer (Business, IT). The statistics below were compiled using an internal anonymous Google Form during the period of Sept. 19-Nov. 19. The survey was sent to 41 people, 40 of whom submitted responses. This is a staff participation rate of 97.6%. Not all respondents answered all questions, leading to a variable number of choice counts per individual questions. Additionally, some of the questions allowed students to select more than one option. However, the reported percentages are still out of the total 40 responses. This means that the responses to some questions add up to more than 100%. All questions, unless otherwise specified within the report, had 40 responses.

Students are elected to The Observer’s e-board during elections that are hosted during the spring and the fall. During spring elections, an entirely new e-board is elected, including a new Editor-in-Chief and Managing Editor. Fall elections are used to fill empty positions, largely those of assistants. Special elections are held as needed to fill positions due to resignations or timesensitive vacancies.

If an editor is elected to a position in the spring, their term runs from April to May of the following year. As such, this Diversity Report largely reflects data from e-board elections held in the spring of 2021.

From April 2022 to August 2022, five members of The Observer’s e-board resigned from their positions, and as such their demographic data is not reflected here. In addition, one student joined The Observer’s e-board between April 2022 to November 2022. While they were not elected as part of our spring elections, their data is reflected in this report.

The Observer is composed primarily of students at Fordham Lincoln Center, more specifically Fordham College at Lincoln Center. While this was not included as a question in the survey, four out of the 41 members are students at the Gabelli School of Business at Lincoln Center. Two out of the 41 members of The Observer’s e-board are students at Fordham College at Rose Hill.

Due to the structure of The Observer’s elections, no member of the e-board is from the Class of 2026. The board is made up of one student who is Class of 2022, 16 students who are Class of 2023, and 12 students for both the Classes of 2024 and 2025.

In our report, we seek to compare the makeup of our data to the makeup of Fordham. Comparison data is pulled from Fordham Fast Facts (https://www. fordham.edu/about/fordham-facts/).

Diversity

he/him/his she/her/hers they/them/theirs Would prefer not to disclose

5 0 10 15 20 25 30 35

he/him/his she/her/hers they/them/theirs Would prefer not to disclose

25% 77.5% 12.5% 0%

10 31 5 0

Respondents could choose more than one response for this question. Percentages were calculated based on the total of 40 responders.

What pronouns do you use? Please select all that apply.

How would you describe yourself? Please select all that apply.

10 15 20 25 5 0

White Asian Black or African American American Indian or Alaska Native Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander Other Latino/Latina Middle Eastern Mixed race/biracial Would prefer not to disclose

Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander

White Asian Black or African American American Indian or Alaska Native Other Would prefer not to disclose

55% 47.5% 5% 0% 2.5% 10% 5% 2.5% 2.5% 0%

22 19 2 0 1 4 2 1 1 0

Respondents could choose more than one response for this question. Percentages were calculated based on the total of 40 responders.

Fordham University: 59.4% White (40.6% Underrepresented Populations) 17.4% Hispanic/Latino

13% Asian 5.4% Black/African American 0.1% American Indian/ Alaskan 0.1% Hawaiian/Pacific Islander

If you answered “Yes” to the previous question, please identify the additional language(s). Please respond “Would prefer not to disclose” if you speak a language other than English at home but would prefer not to identify it.

Arabic

Chinese

Tagalog

Hindi, Marathi

Hindi, Gujurati, Marathi

These are the individual responses of the 10 respondents who answered “Yes” to the question on page 12.

If you have citizenship in another country and feel comfortable sharing, please identify the country(s). Please respond “Would prefer not to disclose” if you have citizenship in another country and would prefer not to identify it.

• India • Philippines • France • Egypt

• Singapore • France, Pakistan • Italy

These are the individual responses of the seven respondents who answered “Yes” to the question on page 20.

Subsidized loans

Fordham need-based grant

Direct unsubsidized loans

Work study

Fordham need-based academic scholarship 10 15 20 25 5 0

Fordham non-need-based academic scholarship

None Pell Grant Would prefer not to disclose

Subsidized loans

Fordham need-based grant

Direct unsubsidized loans

Work study

Fordham need-based academic scholarship

Fordham non-need-based academic scholarship

Pell Grant None Would prefer not to disclose

27.5% 27.5% 37.5% 12.5% 15% 60% 10% 7.5% 2.5%

11 11 15 5 6 24 4

Respondents could choose more than one response for this question. Percentages were calculated based on the total of 40 responders.

Do you hold a (non-work study) paid job or internship? This does NOT include jobs held as a part of the work study program, but DOES include non-work study jobs held at Fordham University. This also does NOT include unpaid internships.

If you do hold a paid job or paid internship, do you hold more than one (1) such role?

Yes No

I do not hold a paid job or paid internship

Yes No I do not hold a paid job or paid internship Would prefer not to disclose

22.5% 40% 32.5% 5%

Would prefer not to disclose 9 16 13 2

Key Insights

In general, women make up a greater share of The Observer’s e-board than men when compared to the makeup of Fordham. Students who identify as nonbinary or other comprise approximately 7.5% of The Observer’s e-board.

The percentage of Observer e-board members who identified as part of the LGBTQ+ community was 40%, while 52.5% identified as not part of the LGBTQ+ community and 7.5% chose to not disclose.

White students continue to make up the majority of The Observer’s e-board. However, this is the first year in recorded data that The Observer is not overrepresenting white students compared to Fordham. White students comprise 55% of The Observer’s e-board (22 students), whereas 59.4% of Fordham undergraduate students identify as such.

Asian students are overrepresented on The Observer’s e-board, with 47.5% of editors identifying as Asian (19 students), compared to 13% of Fordham.

Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander and Hispanic/Latino students comprise 2.5% and 5% of The Observer’s e-board, respectively, compared to 0.1% and 17.4% of Fordham undergraduates as a whole.

The Observer slightly underrepresents Black students compared to the makeup of Fordham, with two Observer e-board members identifying as Black (5%). Black students comprise 5.4% of the Fordham undergraduate population, according to Fordham’s publicly released information.

The Observer is composed of 67.5% (27 students) commuters and 32.5% (13 students) residents. The entire Fordham undergraduate population consists of 52.2% commuter students and 47.8% residents.

At The Observer, 15% of editors are first-generation students, with 82.5% not first-generation. Additionally, the e-board is split at exactly 50% for students having one or more parents that are immigrants. Fordham University does not have data published that can be compared to these statistics.

Over a third of Observer e-board members consider having a paid job or paid internship, including a work-study role, as necessary to maintaining their current livelihood. Nine people on the editorial board said that they hold more than one such role.

Six students (15%) identified as having a disability, and 32 (80%) identified as not having a disability. Two students (5%) indicated that they would prefer not to disclose. There is no public data from Fordham that can be compared to this question.

Recommendations

1. Edit and Add Questions to Create a Better Understanding of Responses

In the Staff Diversity Report from fall 2021, one of the recommendations included expanding the demographics included in the report by asking questions such as commuters versus residents and international versus. domestic students. As can be seen in the report, this year’s survey expanded to include these questions. However, there is still more that can be done.

In last year’s report, another recommendation was to lessen the time commitment of The Observer to allow for more commuters to join the paper. As can be seen in this year’s responses, The Observer is primarily made up of commuters. However, the time commitment and late nights that The Observer requires are still a problem for commuter students, so we recommend adding questions to understand this issue in more detail. First, a future iteration should add a question regarding if students commute from a family home versus off campus, as well as an understanding of the length of said commute. It would also be beneficial to ask commuters questions if their role requires them to be present on production nights or not, to see if the commuting status affects what position they are able to take on.

One question that we recommend changing is the one that asks students for their pronouns. At the moment, it allows for respondents to choose more than one option, but, as some students use more than one set of pronouns, there appear to be more responses than actual survey respondents. In the future, this question should be asked in a way that allows students to identify any and all pronouns they use while also ensuring that the amount of answers is equal to respondents.

In addition, we recommend adding a scale and open response question in which editors can speak on if they feel that The Observer cares about diversity.

2. Include Reporting and Coverage in the Diversity Report

The second recommendation in last year’s report regarded examining The Observer’s reporting coverage on marginalized groups and populations, using The Minnesota Daily and The Daily Orange as examples. Both papers use a content tracker in which they ask reporters to fill out a series of questions about their content. The trackers allowed the papers to examine not only their content itself but also the diversity of the sources interviewed. Unfortunately, we did not have the ability to begin the examination of stories, so we recommend that next year’s editorial board begins collecting data as early as possible about their content.

3. Explore Compensation of The Observer’s E-board

Finally, a goal for The Observer is to be able to compensate their editorial board. This year, we have started conversations with the communication and media studies department as well as the new media and digital design program to create course options that would allow for editors to receive academic credit for their work. While the option for academic credit is helpful for many, it should continue to be a goal for editors to receive financial compensation since almost a quarter of editors rely on having a paid internship or job for their livelihood. At the moment, the entirety of the funds that The Observer receives go to funding the printed publication, paying for subscriptions that are necessary for the work that our editors do, as well as paying for our advisers. In order to have the necessary funding to pay editors, The Observer should continue to maximize its ad revenue and explore new ways of fundraising year-round.