The Daily Nexus conducts an annual demographic survey of our editorial board in order to gauge if the Nexus’ internal diversity, equity and inclusion goals for community representation are reflected in the diversity of our staff.
Movement toward diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) became a permanent commitment at the Daily Nexus with the establishment of the Diversity Task Force in 2020. Its formation came at a time when global Black Lives Matter movement protests led journalists and institutions across the United States to call for increased integration of DEI initiatives within their organizations. This national movement included members of the Nexus’ own editorial staff, who sought to better understand how we serve UC Santa Barbara, Isla Vista and surrounding communities.
The Diversity Task Force initially consisted of 15 editorial staff members — such as Opinion or Artsweek editors — who dedicated time beyond their primary roles to meet their original objectives. These objectives consisted of the following:
1. Ensure that our editorial and general staff reflect the diversity of the UC Santa Barbara community.
2. Strengthen representation in our coverage by improving relationships with the campus and community.
3. Provide training on diversity and inclusion for all Nexus staff, including writers, editors, content creators, artists and collaborators.
Since then, the Diversity Task Force has evolved into two dedicated DEI chair positions. Currently, the co-chairs continue to expand the work of the Diversity Task Force. In addition to conducting an annual staff survey in conjunction with Data, the DEI team reviews identity- and representation-related articles, and conducts workshops on inclusive language use, heritage months and ethical reporting. Along with these responsibilities, the Nexus as a whole builds upon our predecessors on the Diversity Task Force by pursuing yearly DEI initiatives. The 2025-26 initiatives are as follows:
1. The creation and implementation of an U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.) tracker
2. The establishment of the DEI Archive and Dictionary
3. The continuation of the annual DEI content report and demographic survey for the 2025-26 year
This article is a companion piece to our annual DEI content audit and report. The DEI report, in conjunction with Data, highlights content, language use and representation in the Daily Nexus for the 2024-25 year.
Following our previous demographic survey analysis published in 2024, we are committed to continuing to assess diversity, equity and inclusion within the Nexus staff. In this article, the Nexus will compare the demographics of our staff with those of the general UCSB population, according to the UCSB Office of Budget & Planning. This assessment seeks to provide future Nexus recruitment efforts with insight toward ensuring the voices of our diverse student body are reflected in our newsroom and coverage. Likewise, this survey seeks to promote newsroom transparency to our readership.
This year, 41 of the Nexus’ incoming and continuing editors opted to respond to a demographic survey given in May 2025. Survey respondents were able to select multiple responses or fill in the blank if more than one response, or none of the responses, reflected their background or identity. At the time of this survey’s dissemination, the Nexus had 54 editors on the editorial staff.
Here at the Daily Nexus, we have an editing staff that come from a variety of places around the country. The majority of our staff come from California, either the Bay Area or Los Angeles County.
The cultural diversity of the Nexus staff is reflected by the fact that many members can also speak multiple languages, including Spanish, Chinese, Hindi, Japanese, German, Punjabi and seven others.
Likewise, racial demographic data for editors who identified with more than one race was double-counted, in line with how UCSB counts their own demographic data and how our publication counted the data in our previous survey. Of our 41 respondents, 19.5% identified with more than one race. Those who self-reported one race reported either White, Hispanic or Asian. For reference, approximately 14% of the UCSB population are not White, Asian or Hispanic.
In addition to the questions posed on last year’s survey, the DEI team has implemented questions related to gender identity and sexual orientation. These questions were newly added to further understand the diversity among Nexus editors. Among the Nexus staff, 78% of respondents used she/her pronouns and 80.5% identified as female. Male representation within the Nexus editors is significantly lower, with only 17.1% identifying as male and using he/him pronouns. This year, no respondents to the demographic survey identified as non-binary. However, 4.8 % respondents also reported the usage of they/them or any/all pronouns.
Among 35 respondents who opted to share their sexual orientation, 57.1% identify as straight and 42.9% respondents identify as LGBTQIA+.
At UCSB, transfer students make up a third of the student body. However, at the Nexus, only 4.9% of respondents were transfer students.
First-generation students are defined by UCSB as students who are one of the first in their families to graduate from a four-year institution. From our respondents, only 17.1% were first-generation students.
Among the editorial staff at the Daily Nexus, continuing from 2023-24 reports, communication was the most common major. Other popular majors for the Nexus staff included English, political science and statistics and data science.
Many of our editorial staff pursue minors in accompaniment to their majors. The most popular minor among the Daily Nexus editorial board was professional writing. The second most common minor was applied psychology.
Along with pursuing their college degrees, a majority of the Nexus editors work paid jobs and internships alongside their time commitment to the Nexus. 43.9% of respondents had one job or internship other than working at the Nexus, and 24.3% of respondents had two or more jobs or internships outside of the Nexus.
Apart from the staffs’ diverse range of majors and minors, they maintain a variety of journalism experience prior to joining the Editorial Board. 53.7% of respondents reported having no journalistic experience before joining the Nexus, while 46.3% did.
Our limited data shows that since our last survey, the demographics of our staff are moving towards alignment with UCSB’s demographic profile. However, when looking at UCSB’s 2024-25 gender identity, first-generation and racial demographics, our Editorial Board at the Nexus are not fully representative of the diversity in our student body. Looking ahead, we aim to continue pursuing and improving DEI initiatives within the Daily Nexus. Conducting these yearly staff demographic surveys are crucial to these efforts. These quantitative and qualitative responses help our team maintain transparency with our readership, take ownership of the gaps in staff representation and plan for the future of the Nexus.
As always, addressing these gaps in demographic data is a high priority for both us and our readers. Here at the Nexus, we continue to offer support to all students interested in participating in student journalism regardless of background and prior experience.
A version of this article appeared on p. 10 of the Oct. 2, 2025 print edition of the Daily Nexus.
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