The College Fix

About 33 percent of newspaper is LGBT, 40 percent doesn’t believe in God

Journalists walking through The Daily Princetonian offices are more likely to bump into someone who is “asexual” than a reporter who is “very right wing,” according to the student newspaper’s latest “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging” report.

The report from Princeton University’s campus newspaper found just .5 percent of its team identify as “very right wing.” This means, based on the 211 respondents to the question, there is one person on the newspaper who is “very right wing.” Another 3.3 percent of the editors and staff are “slightly right wing.”

By contrast, nearly 80% is either “very left-wing” or “slightly left wing.”

But while there is one “very right wing” journalist at the Daily Princetonian, there are at least seven “asexual” members – about three percent of the 231 respondents to the sexual orientation question picked this option. Therefore there are about as many asexual members (seven) as there are “right wing” (eight). There could, possibly, be overlap, though LGBT identification is closely tied to being politically liberal.

The number of respondents, above 200, proves it to be a comprehensive survey – there around 50 editors and 200 staffers at the newspaper.

About one in three Daily Princetonian members are LGBT, according to the report.

“Nearly 65 percent of the ‘Prince’ identifies as heterosexual or straight,” the report stated. “This is a slight decrease from last year’s DEIB survey numbers, which reported that just over 61 percent of the ‘Prince’ identified as heterosexual or straight.” The newspaper presumably means slight increase.

Among the Princetonian team, 1.7 percent is “pansexual” and 16.5 percent is “bisexual.”

The newspaper provided minimal commentary on the skewed results, except to say it’s become more “moderate.” “Over the years, the ‘Prince’ has become more moderate. In 2021 and 2022, 7.5 percent and 10.6 percent identified as moderate, respectively. This year, 16.1 percent of respondents identify as moderate,” the student newspaper reported.

The newspaper appeared to acknowledge in one listed “goal” that something must be done.

“Broaden reporting outreach across ideological lines to provide more multidimensional coverage,” the student newspaper stated is a goal moving forward.

However, elsewhere the student newspaper focuses more heavily on racial and income identity and less on political identification.

DEIB Chair Christofer Robles wrote in the introduction:

The ‘Prince’ continues to serve as the first journalism experience for many of its staffers, and the increasing number of students on financial aid and decreasing number of students for whom campus jobs have interfered with their ability to contribute to the paper is promising. However, the underrepresentation of Black, Hispanic/Latine, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, or Native American and Indigenous students suggests greater work is needed in the recruitment and retention of staffers from these racial and ethnic identities. This gap — and the continued underrepresentation of first-generation or low-income students — only widens when looking at the makeup of editors at the ‘Prince’. It is essential that this paper better commits to a more diverse newsroom…

…In addition to promoting a more diverse paper, it is a goal of the DEIB committee for the ‘Prince’ to better support its staff. Inclusion and belonging is one of this paper’s most basic responsibilities, and work must be done to address the experiences of staffers of color, low-income staffers, and staffers in non-editor positions who feel largely less included than their counterparts.

Similarly missing is a discussion about increasing religious viewpoints.

About 42 percent of the newspaper is either “agnostic” or atheist.

MORE: Nearly half of Harvard freshmen don’t believe in God

IMAGES: The Daily Princetonian/College Fix edits

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