Dear reader,

The Daily Orange will be at its best when our newsroom represents the diversity of the community we serve. It will be at its most valuable when all residents can turn to us to find their perspectives covered with compassion, nuance and fairness. But we’re not there yet.

This fall, The D.O. began assessing the diversity of our staff and our content to better understand the ways in which our publication — which is and has been a predominantly white institution — can reach this necessary end. Diversifying our newsroom and its work is not just a goal. It is an essential undertaking, one that we have failed to pursue for far too long.

Today, we’re publishing this report to detail to our readers the progress we’ve made, and the work we still must do, in regards to this undertaking.

We shared with our readers in August the steps we intended to take to improve our newsroom’s diversity. Some of those steps included surveying the diversity of our staff, analyzing our coverage’s representation of marginalized communities and gathering insight and feedback from our readers. The results of these measures are included in our report.

Our efforts are far from complete. In this report, you will also find our reflections on areas for improvement, which we discussed with The D.O. Board of Directors’ diversity committee. Throughout the spring semester, we will actively work to implement these improvements while continuing to assess our work as we did this fall.

We’ll also publish similar reports on a semesterly basis, providing a transparent look at our progress and an opportunity to hold ourselves accountable to ensure such change happens in our newsroom. This is our final semester as a management team, but the newsroom’s subsequent leaders will be required to continue and prioritize this work.

Thank you for reading. If you have any questions, feedback or concerns about this report, you can contact us at editor@dailyorange.com.

Best,
Casey Darnell | Editor-in-chief, 2020-2021
Emma Folts | Managing editor, 2020-2021
Richard J Chang | Student board member
KJ Edelman | Digital managing editor
Stacy Fernández | Alumni board member
Amy Nakamura | Student board member
Talia Trackim | Student board member

Published on February 2, 2021 at 11:00 am

Contact Emma: esfolts@syr.edu