The editorial staff at The Brandeis Hoot is committed to increasing the diversity of our paper and representing the Brandeis community as a whole. In April of 2016, we sent out a campus journalism survey to get more information on our readership, our role on campus, what students expect of us and how we can improve. The results were valuable in alerting us to how we need to change and in spurring preliminary plans for this academic year. These plans included implementing training for new writers, updating the style guide and ethics policy and providing more comprehensive reporting by consulting multiple sources of information.

One plan for change we have been particularly conscious of since the summer is to expand the diversity of The Hoot’s writers and editors. In order to best represent the community, we need to draw on the perspectives of all students, especially those in minority groups whose voices are often overlooked on campus.

In line with these efforts, we are in the midst of reaching out to cultural clubs, departments and programs that work closely with or are made up of students whose voices have been historically marginalized on Brandeis’ campus and beyond. We are seeking writers, editors, photographers and layout staff—students who can contribute their perspectives and skills to a paper endeavoring to reduce bias and widen representation.

We recognize where we have fallen short in our recruitment efforts year after year. As an almost exclusively white editorial board, we acknowledge this problem and want the community newspaper to actually represent the entire community.

If you are part of an ICC club or any minority group on campus and are interested in collaborating with us, please reach out at eic@thebrandeishoot.com. We would love to talk about how to get involved or any suggestions for the paper as we move in a new direction this year.