10.1 percent of the ‘Prince’ identifies as having a disability, compared to 6.9 percent in 2022, and the proportion of editors and staffers that identify as having a disability is roughly equal.
Views on disability representation ‘Prince’ coverage are overwhelmingly positive across all staffers. Notably, of the respondents that identify as having a disability, none felt that the ‘Prince’ did not cover issues related to disability representation comprehensively and sensitively, compared to 10.6 percent who felt that way last year.
Earlier this year, the ‘Prince’ published a special issue for Disability Awareness Month “Disabled is not a bad word.” While this project amplified and celebrated disabled voices, and thoughts on disability representation have improved since 2022, the ‘Prince’ should continue to amplify the lives and experiences of people with disabilities throughout the whole year and work to promote a more accessible newsroom and paper.
The ‘Prince’ is one of the largest student organizations on Princeton’s campus, boasting over 400 staffers, with slightly less than 250 students responding to this survey. This is the first journalism experience for over half of the survey respondents.
Over half of the respondents just joined the ‘Prince’ in the Fall 2023 semester. About 75 percent of respondents are in a staffer position, with about 25 percent in an editor position.
Similar to last year, News has the largest percentage of respondents at 19 percent of the editorial section, followed by Copy at 14 percent of respondents. Cartoon and Tech both make up 0.4 percent of the ‘Prince,’ respectively.
Over 54 percent of respondents spend over two hours a week on ‘Prince’-related work. All respondents who spend 10 or more hours on ‘Prince’-related work are in an editor position.
16.8 percent of the ‘Prince’ identifies as first-generation — not having parents that completed a four-year degree. This is a decline from last year where 19.4 percent of staff identified as first-generation, and is slightly less than is represented in both the Prince’s Class of 2027 Frosh Survey and Class of 2023 Senior Survey. In contrast, nearly 68.1 percent of staff reported having at least one parent who holds a postgraduate degree, a minimal decline from last year’s 68.8 percent.
First-generation representation decreases to 7.1 percent at the leadership and editor level, a substantial drop off from last year’s 19.7 percent. The especial lack of first-generation representation at the editor level, in addition to its decrease at the ‘Prince’ as a whole, may contribute to greater gaps in diversity, inclusion, and coverage. These gaps may inform the 10.4 percent of survey respondents that somewhat or strongly disagreed with the statement: “The ‘Prince’ covers issues related to FGLI (first-generation, low-income) representation comprehensively and sensitively.” This sentiment increases to 19.4 percent among first-generation staffers.
Section-specific first-generation representation varies widely, with Newsletter, Design, and Photo having the highest proportion of first-generation respondents (42.9 percent, 33.3 percent and 30 percent, respectively.) Tech, Sports, Puzzles, Cartoon, Data, and Features have the lowest representation, all having 10 percent or less of their staff identify as first-generation.
Additionally, 19.1 percent of ‘Prince’ staffers report having a family member who attended Princeton, less than the 21.4 percent of Senior Survey respondents and more than the 18.6 percent of Frosh Survey respondents who were also legacy students.
Nearly 65 percent of the ‘Prince’ identifies as heterosexual or straight. This is a slight increase from last year’s DEIB survey numbers, which reported that just over 61 percent of the ‘Prince’ identified as heterosexual or straight. This statistic varies between staffers and those in editor or other leadership positions — 69 percent and 52 percent, respectively.
Across the ‘Prince,’ about 16 percent identified as bisexual (down from last year’s roughly 20 percent). Collectively, about 15 percent identify as queer or questioning. Gay, lesbian, pansexual and asexual identifiers made up about 14 percent.
When compared to the Class of 2027 Frosh Survey that the ‘Prince’ conducted, the 147 DEIB survey reveals that the ‘Prince’ has a greater percentage of students that do not identify as straight. The Class of 2027 Frosh Survey reported that 75 percent of students identified as straight. However, the ‘Prince’ percentages are nearly the same as those reported in the 2023 senior survey — about 65 percent of the Class of 2023 identified as heterosexual or straight.
Almost 48 percent of the ‘Prince’ identifies as female, nearly 2 percent identifies as genderqueer, and non-binary and transgender each comprise less than 1 percent.
Across most sexual orientations, ‘Prince’ coverage of LGBTQ+ issues is generally viewed favorably. Exceptions include queer students (about 7 percent of whom strongly disagree with the statement that the ‘Prince’ covers issues related to LGBTQ+ representation comprehensively and sensitively), pansexual students (25 percent of whom strongly disagree), and bisexual students (3.2 percent of whom strongly disagree).
12.4 percent of ‘Prince’ staffers are international students — about three percent lower than the percent in Princeton’s newest class, according to the Class of 2027 Frosh Survey. The largest number of those students are from Asia, with North America and Europe drawing the second and third largest groups of staffers. Out of domestic students, New Yorkers and New Jerseyans are most represented.
Staffers are more likely to be international students than editors are. They also feel that the ‘Prince’ doesn’t do a great job with international student coverage. 18.2 percent of international respondents reported that they ‘somewhat disagree’ with the statement “The ‘Prince’ covers issues related to the international student experience comprehensively and sensitively,” while 40.9 percent said they ‘somewhat agree’ or ‘strongly agree.’ This is a more critical view of international student experience ‘Prince’ coverage than is held by non-international students — only 7.3 percent of non-international students selected ‘somewhat disagree’ with the aforementioned statement.
29.2 percent of the ‘Prince’ receives full financial aid. Roughly an equal amount of the ‘Prince’ receives partial aid or no aid (35.8 percent and 35 percent, respectively). This marks a 6.2 percent increase in the proportion of staffers receiving full financial aid, likely the result of Princeton’s expanded financial aid program that was announced last fall.
26.3 percent of the ‘Prince’ identifies as low income and 38.3 percent report an annual total household income of less than 100k/year. A slightly smaller proportion of editors identify as low income than staffers (22.2 percent and 26.5 percent, respectively) and 43.1 percent of staffers who identify as low income have been on the ‘Prince’ for one semester or longer. In comparison, 55.9 percent of staffers who identified as low income last year had been on the ‘Prince’ for one semester or longer.
No members of the Cartoon or Tech sections identify as low income, and less than 20 percent of Data, Puzzles, and Sports staffers identify as low income. On the other hand, more than 30 percent of Copy, Opinion, Photo, Design, Prospect, Newsletter, Humor, Podcast, and Audience staffers identify as low income.
About 70 percent of students responded that their first language was English, a slight increase from last year’s roughly 67 percent. Among those who did not have English as their first language, the most common languages spoken first were Mandarin Chinese, Korean, Spanish, and Hindi..
79.6 percent of the ‘Prince’ identifies as left wing. Like last year, significantly more editors identify as left wing — 90.2 percent as compared to 76.4 percent of staffers.
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.
(Note: In 2021, the ‘Prince’ asked respondents to identify on a scale of liberal to conservative, as opposed to left to right in 2022 and 2023.)
Over 75 percent of respondents are members of the Classes of 2026 and 2027. The percentage of staff pursuing an A.B. degree is nearly identical to last year at 87.3 percent. Among those respondents, 46.4 percent are pursuing a degree in the social sciences, and 19.7 percent and 17.2 percent are pursuing degrees in the humanities and natural sciences, respectively.
5.6 percent of staffers are varsity athletes, an increase from last year’s 4.2 percent but significantly lower than the 18 percent of all undergraduates that are varsity athletes.
The ‘Prince’ is predominantly white (39.3 percent) and Asian (36.8 percent), which is consistent with previous reports. The ‘Prince’ has slightly more POC representation than the complete student body. For the 2022–23 academic year, the University reported that 56 percent of undergraduate students are white.
Still, both Black and Hispanic/Latine students are underrepresented at the ‘Prince’ compared to University-wide statistics. While 11 percent of undergraduates identify as Hispanic/Latine and 12 percent identify as Black, just 7.9 percent and 5.9 percent of the ‘Prince’ identify as these groups, respectively.
Additionally, no respondents identified as Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander or Native American and Indigenous this year. Over the past 2 years of the DEIB report, the number of students to identify with either group has fluctuated between 1-2 staffers. While the two populations are historically underrepresented across the University (around two percent identify as “Native American, Native Alaskan or Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander”), the ‘Prince’ should make a concerted effort to engage with Indigenous students. Through the DEIB Committee’s Sourcing Initiative, Natives at Princeton (NAP) expressed that they often feel their relationship with the ‘Prince’ is reliant on transactional reporting needs. Continuously engaging with underrepresented communities is a necessary next step to repairing and strengthening those relationships.
The ‘Prince’ should also take steps to evaluate the staff-to-editor pipeline. While 37.6 percent of staff identify as white, almost one-half of editors identify as white.
In regards to feelings surrounding the ‘Prince’s coverage of race, no white respondents disagree with the statement that “the ‘Prince’ covers issues related to race and ethnicity comprehensively and sensitively.” Conversely, 33.3 percent of Black respondents and 11.8 percent of Hispanic/Latine respondents view the ‘Prince’s coverage of issues related to race unfavorably. These incongruent perceptions of coverage between historically underrepresented staff and white staff should be interrogated internally.
The ‘Prince’ has gotten more Christian over the last year, with 36 percent of respondents identifying with some form of Christianity — compared to 31.5 percent last year. Meanwhile, less respondents identify as Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, or Sikh (24.3 percent) than last year (30.4 percent). No students identified as Sikh this year.
The amount of staffers that identify as either agnostic or atheist has also decreased, going from 49.4 percent last year to 42.4 percent this year. There was also a slight dip in the amount of staffers that identify as spiritual but not religious.
Views on disability representation ‘Prince’ coverage are overwhelmingly positive across all staffers. Notably, of the respondents that identify as having a disability, none felt that the ‘Prince’ did not cover issues related to disability representation comprehensively and sensitively, compared to 10.6 percent who felt that way last year.
Earlier this year, the ‘Prince’ published a special issue for Disability Awareness Month “Disabled is not a bad word.” While this project amplified and celebrated disabled voices, and thoughts on disability representation have improved since 2022, the ‘Prince’ should continue to amplify the lives and experiences of people with disabilities throughout the whole year and work to promote a more accessible newsroom and paper.