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.
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?”
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.
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
