Our work as a campus newspaper will be strongest when we tell the stories of the different communities on our campus in a respectful manner and create an internal environment where everyone—particularly those who have traditionally not had a place in news media—is welcomed. Since many of this paper’s past initiatives in this realm have fallen short, we are including a tracker that lists progress on our DEI work. As the fall semester begins, we are currently in the process of fine-tuning our DEI initiatives and putting these plans into motion over the long-term.
If you have suggestions about what StudLife can do better in this realm, you can email [email protected] or fill out this form. We will update this page with our progress on various initiatives by November 1, 2021.
This tracker was last updated October 6, 2021
Goal |
Initiative |
Progress |
---|---|---|
Ensure DEI initiatives remain a key focus for StudLife | Create a standing DEI team | Members selected with first meeting to occur in mid-October |
Ensure DEI initiatives remain a key focus for StudLife | Start keeping track of what, who and how our content covers, as a way of creating and improving upon a baseline for the future | Managing editors have begun to update internal trackers so that there is data for the DEI team to analyze later this month. |
Decrease financial barriers to entry for staffers | Move senior staff stipends from a semesterly basis to a monthly basis | First stipends will go out at the end of September / early October, instead of end of December |
Decrease financial barriers to entry for staffers | Increase the amount of money allocated for staff stipends | Initiation of conversations with WUSMI members and plans for alternative revenue streams to augment existing pool of money |
Provide more clarity about our content, policies and how we operate | Update About page with expanded information about our content, better explanations of policies and other details | The new page is live now (including this tracker!) |
Engage in more informed, sensitive reporting on topics relating to marginalized communities on campus | Hold regular trainings facilitated by outside groups focused on topics such as implicit bias and sensitive reporting | Completed training with the Center for Diversity and Inclusion Sept. 26, with more trainings in the works for later this fall. |
Create a list of common microaggressions / misrepresentations that have appeared in our recent work and make sure that the list is distributed to reporters and editors so that we know what to avoid | Initial list development to commence mid-October, with a goal of completing it by the end of the month. | |
Give readers and community members more opportunities to provide feedback | Create general feedback form, pitches and tips form and Forum feedback form | The forms are now included on the updated About page |
Create a more welcoming and supportive environment for students of color, low-income students and others who have historically not been included in media | Introduce private staff support groups outside of our Slack workspace | Space request form is pinned in Slack so that staffers can request the creation of a space at any time. |
These charts show the demographic makeup of the Student Life senior staff for the 2020-2021 year and the 2021-2022 year, respectively. Numbers on the charts represent percentages.
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