OPINIONS

Max

Kurant Opinions Columnist

Being an Individualized Major Program (IMP) student has already shaped me more than anything else in college. However, I have always felt that our program could be a lot more developed. Attending the 14th-annual Interdisciplinary and Individualized Major Programs Conference last month, I learned further development was not only a possibility, but also a necessity. This was my first time meeting other students from IMPs across the country, and I was stunned to see how well-developed these other programs were. This is in stark contrast to what I’ve seen at Binghamton University, where we have less than 10 total IMP students, few resources and very little awareness among the student body that this program exists. It is run by one academic advisor, who also serves as both a pre-law disparities going forward. Regarding gender, we are working to make our newsroom as inclusive as possible. This year, this included opening up our editorial discussions to broader staff, beyond our largely-male editorial board. We also note that our contributor-base is largely women, which is not reflected in our current staff. As we pushed for more contributors and staff members to have an in-person presence in our office, we have found we are able to create a more inclusive environment in which different voices are heard. This is only the beginning — we are committed to creating an inclusive workplace that does not privilege any one group over another. Regarding race — we

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EDITORIAL: DIVERSITY REPORT 2023

believe more expansive recruiting strategies can assist us in fostering a more diverse newsroom, which will in turn create more diversity in content. Pipe Dream should not remain as simply a newspaper to be read — it should be an outlet in which the campus community finds a voice. Our staff next year plans to hold meetings with leaders in the multicultural community, discussing how we can best represent their events and addressing concerns in our coverage. Further, we believe that a diversity in content can in turn promote diversity in staff — and are planning on tracking the depth of our coverage in our 2024 Diversity Report. Through both such initiatives we aim to be proactive, rather than simply waiting to react to concerns as they are raised. In socioeconomic diversity, our data was varied, but we believe this survey can be enhanced for future use. We noted that 20 percent of respondents declined to respond, and feel we can broaden the categories to allow for our staff to be more comfortable with reporting their socioeconomic status. Religious data appeared to be more evenly spread, with nearly equal parts agnostic, atheist, Christian and Jewish staff. Still, we hope to see more religious representation in the future, and will examine the effects of expanded coverage of different communities.

We also recognize that our staff’s range of sexual diversity has shifted vastly over the years. This year, Pipe Dream continued its annual Sex Issue — in both print and digital formats — in which we published resources for LGBTQ+ students. We also conducted and published our campus Sex Survey for the first time since 2020, with the goal of providing an outlet for the campus community to express its sexual diversity in our paper. We will continue to explore ways to make our publication as inclusive as possible.

As a newspaper, our commitment to diversity must be strong to reflect the community we serve. Diversity can guide and influence our content, and in turn, strengthen our coverage. We will continue to publish our Diversity Report annually, but beyond this, our staff will continue to analyze this data and