Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at The Chronicle of Higher Education:

An Essential Element of Our Mission and Values

Every day at The Chronicle of Higher Education, we work to inform, empower, and connect people in higher education and the nonprofit world with the knowledge and tools they need to transform society. We recognize that diversity, equity, and inclusion are essential qualities, and that is why it is imperative for every aspect of The Chronicle’s mission and operations to reflect the importance of those values. We seek to build a welcoming and inclusive environment, one in which mutual respect for everyone is a core value.

We know that a continuous, sustained focus on embracing and honoring our differences allows us to better fulfill our mission, and that our diversity helps us attract and keep the talented people who fuel our creativity and enable our business to adapt and thrive. Ensuring that diverse voices are part of our decision-making is essential to our work, because doing so leads to better outcomes for our employees, our products and services, and the audiences we seek to inform.

Diversity comes in many forms, including race, gender, age, sexual orientation, disability, education, socio-economic background, life experience, geography, religion, ideology, and more. Those aspects of diversity must be integral to our actions whenever we collaborate as colleagues, pursue our journalism and information services, offer professional development and career growth, work with outside partners, and undertake other activities.

We commit to examining our own policies, practices, and decision-making as we learn how to best lift up people who have been marginalized. At The Chronicle, all of us are expected to take steps that will enable broad participation and serious consideration of a range of experiences and perspectives.

We count on everyone in the organization to contribute to an atmosphere that encourages open debate, discussion of differences, and an appreciation of the perspectives of our colleagues and those we serve as readers, advertisers, and participants in our events.

That’s why in January 2021 we established a council of employees to advance and encourage ideas and activities that will strengthen our commitment to inclusion, diversity, and equity, and to promote accountability in our efforts as an organization.

Along with this statement of commitment, we have outlined the steps we are taking as an employer, as managers and leaders, as journalists, as information providers, and in our business practices. We have, for example, evaluated salary data in a rigorous and methodical way to focus on pay equity for women and people of color, and we commit to conducting such reviews annually. We have expanded our recruitment outreach efforts into communities we want to attract and established a Chronicle scholarship to help increase diversity in media. We will also continue to focus our attention on the growth and development of our staff, particularly women and people of color, and to track and measure our progress regularly. We commit to releasing annually a public report breaking down gender and race metrics across the company.

Some of these efforts have long been part of our company’s DNA, while others are currently in the works and will be carried out over time. These are living documents we will use as we share new priorities and continue to examine where we made progress … and where we have fallen short.