The Tufts Daily
Diversity & Inclusion Report, 2024–25
Prepared by the Ethics & Inclusion Committee May 2025
Introduction
The 2024–25 Diversity & Inclusion Report continues the Daily’s effort to gather insights into the composition of our staff and their experiences in our organization. The report was created by a group of Daily staff members under the purview of the paper’s Ethics & Inclusion Committee, formerly known as the Intentionality & Inclusivity Committee.
The Daily is committed to upholding accuracy and inclusivity in our coverage and fostering an equitable environment for all staff. We seek to continually move the organization forward by improving our internal and external facing practices. To this end, the Ethics & Inclusion Committee has compiled this third annual report to offer transparency into our newsroom, identify ways in which we can work to better inform our coverage and assess how to make the Daily more inclusive and representative of the communities we serve and cover.
It has been three years since the first Diversity & Inclusion Report was released. We remain committed to publishing a report every year, which we hope will spark conversation and track organizational changes over the short and long term.
The data in this report was collected between October 27 and November 10, 2024, via a staff survey and thus represents the composition of the Daily’s staff at that point. It does not represent the spring 2025 recruitment cycle nor any staff turnover following that period. The Committee circulated the survey through staff-wide communication channels and asked that executive board members complete it during a meeting. In total, 118 members of the Daily responded to at least one question on the survey.
Overall, the survey indicated that the Daily is less diverse than the Tufts community, especially in regards to race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status. For example, a majority of survey respondents identify as white, which is inconsistent with the composition of the Tufts undergraduate student population. 33% of our staff is on some form of financial aid, which is less than the 45% of undergraduates university-wide.
The survey also assessed feelings of inclusion at the Daily. Most respondents reported feeling comfortable and included in the Daily. Generally, respondents felt comfortable raising concerns to their executive editors and participating in section meetings.
Of respondents, 27% served at least one semester on the Daily’s executive or managing boards, which together comprise about 35 people each semester. Our leadership boards turn over twice a year allowing members to cycle through masthead and elected positions rather quickly. All charts that include “leadership” are filtered from those who
answered “yes” to the question: “Have you ever been on the Executive Board or Managing Board of the Daily?”
Some questions allowed respondents to select more than one option. The number of responses (as indicated by “n=” at the bottom of each chart) for these questions is therefore higher than the number of total respondents.
The Daily’s contributing staff at the time the survey was released is estimated to be around 250 people, but we do not have organization-wide data available and cannot determine whether the sample of respondents is representative of the paper as a whole. Additionally, as this survey was optional for staff members, it is prone to self-selection bias those who chose to participate may not accurately represent the whole of the Daily’s demographics. Several sections are also underrepresented. Nevertheless, this data offers useful insights into our organization and highlights key issues to focus on in the future.
We are open to further feedback and ideas, so we encourage you to fill out this anonymous Google form. If you have questions, suggestions or would like to reach out, please email eandi@tuftsdaily.com or daily@tuftsdaily.com.
Finally, we would like to thank everyone who worked on the 2021–22 Diversity Report for paving the way for this and future reports.
Diversity & Inclusion Report Committee
Gunnar Ivarsson and Josué Pérez – Ethics and Inclusion Committee Chairs
Liam Chalfonte, Dylan Fee, Odessa Gaines, Maya Godard, Nate Hall, Max Lerner, Rachel Liu, Shannon Murphy, Dylan Tanouye
SECTION I: Demographics
Gender identity
Sexual orientation
Financial barriers by financial aid
High school background
First language
Religious identity
Majors
Minors
SECTION II: Inclusion
Friends made
Range of perspectives
Inclusion: Written Feedback
In addition to collecting multiple-choice responses to questions about inclusion at the Daily, the survey also provided a space for respondents to offer written feedback anonymously. Below are common themes that emerged from this feedback.
Underrepresented/misrepresented groups
● Some respondents said they believe that certain racial and ethnic minority groups are underrepresented at the Daily. Of these respondents, some highlighted groups that are underrepresented in the Daily:
○ Black students (2)
○ Indigenous students (2)
○ Palestinian and Arab students (1)
○ Jewish students (1)
○ International students (1)
● Some respondents said they believe there are no underrepresented groups in the Daily (7).
● Some respondents believe that there is a lack of socioeconomic diversity represented in the Daily (4).
● Some respondents said that students with conservative or right-leaning views are underrepresented in the Daily (3)
● Other respondents believe that there is a lack of gender diversity represented in the Daily (4).
General thoughts about coverage
● Respondents found the Daily’s general coverage, and its coverage of the Medford and Somerville area, to be thorough (3).
● Some respondents expressed that the Daily should encourage more promotion of various viewpoints, particularly those of dissent (2).
● Respondents suggested that more politically neutral language be used at the Daily (2).
● There were suggestions to clarify rules, processes and constitutional organization (2).
SECTION III: Findings and Recommendations
Using the survey data and its written feedback as a guide, the Diversity & Inclusion Report Committee with input from the Ethics & Inclusion Committee, members of the Managing Board, former leadership and wider staff compiled the following recommendations for Daily staff and leadership under each finding.
Finding: There is a lack of diversity in the opinions and coverage of the Daily.
Recommendations:
1. Encourage collaboration with other clubs, chiefly other student publications at Tufts.
a. Create dialogues and connections with other publications to find ways to collaborate.
i. These collaborations could revolve around holidays, significant events or Daily special editions
b. Through panel discussions or leadership meetings.
2. Institutionalize an ethics presentation at DailyCon.
a. Create ethics presentations for individual content sections.
b. Continuously update ethics policies and presentations to reflect organizational changes.
3. Expand our coverage of Indigenous and Black communities.
4 Bring writers to the office to hear feedback from their executive editors
a. Encourage editors to work with new writers on their first articles.
5. Encourage more people to fill out the Diversity Report survey.
a. Focus especially on understaffed sections like Science, Graphics, Video, etc.
b. Talk to section leadership about creating time during section meetings for staff to fill out the survey.
c. Keep a consistent track of the number of people who have contributed to the Daily before the survey goes out
6. Expand distribution at locations throughout our local communities.
a. Explore more coverage issues within Medford and Somerville.
Finding: The Daily’s staff is not as diverse as Tufts’ undergraduate student body, and its coverage does not reflect the full diversity of the Tufts community.
Recommendations:
1. Work to support a greater amount of diversity on the Daily staff.
a. Support and encourage transgender and non-binary staff.
i. Reach out and collaborate with the LGBTQ+ Center.
b. Build trust with writers of underrepresented communities.
i. Foster deeper relationships with identity centers on campus with further communication.
c Reach out to culture clubs during recruitment
d. Encourage columns that focus on underrepresented communities.