Community Diversity

Community Diversity

(updated January 2024)

Statement

As a service organization within the College of Communication and Information Sciences, Alabama Public Radio (APR) aims to promote intellectual, social, and cultural conditions of the regional, state, national and international publics. This aim is actualized through service that advances a vigorous exchange of ideas within a culturally diverse environment. Members of such a community – students, faculty, and staff – who learn together are better equipped to understand, appreciate, and contribute to twenty-first century global society that emphasizes pluralism and freedom of speech.

To this end, Alabama Public Radio supports and embraces a student, faculty and staff community enriched by members of diverse genders, national origins, races, ethnicities, cultures, religions, socioeconomic conditions, geographic backgrounds, sexualities, ages, religious beliefs and spiritualities, abilities and political views. Alabama Public Radio is dedicated to sustaining diverse cultural events, service opportunities and other educational and
professional initiatives that augment cultural awareness and appreciation, group and individual diversity, and the promotion of ethical and civically engaged societies.

Diversity Goals

Alabama Public Radio is licensed to the University of Alabama as part of the Center for Public Television and Radio (CPT&R), a service organization of the College of Communication and Information Sciences. APR follows University recruitment and employment policies with activities conducted in relationship with the University's Department of Human Resources. The
public is invited to view WUAL's most recent Equal Employment Opportunity Public File Report on the APR website.

As part of the College of Communication and Information Sciences, APR has established the following objectives regarding the diversity of its workforce and community service:

• Foster a supportive and diverse environment
• Increase faculty and staff diversity
• Increase student diversity
• Maintain an inclusive curriculum
• Provide diversity through research, service, and public events

Diversity Implementation

APR has reviewed the practices that are designed to fulfill the station's commitment to diversity and to meet the applicable FCC guidelines with APR's licensee official. Annual reports to that end are submitted to the Office of the Provost.

As of December 2023, 18 percent of CPT&R staff and student staff identify as Black, Indigenous or People of Color (BIPOC). The diversity breakdown at CPT&R is as follows:

Professional Staff

· 24 Staff Members for CPT&R
· 8 Female (33%)
· 3 BIPOC (13%)

Student Staff

· 25 Students
· 15 Female (60%)
· 6 BIPOC (24%)

Total CPT&R Staff

· 49 Total
· 23 Female (47%)
· 9 BIPOC (18%)

CPT&R staff diversity stayed largely static over the past year. Female representation remained the same at 47 percent for the entire staff. BIPOC representation decreased to 24 percent from
25 percent among the student staff. Overall, BIPOC representation decreased to 18 percent from 19 percent.

As part of CPT&R, Alabama Public Radio will continue to seek out diversity in hiring practices. APR participates annually in the Work Study Job Program Fair and the Career Fair, which attract a diverse group of students and recent graduates. Management at APR routinely attends diversity training programs offered by the University of Alabama. In the next year, CPT&R will strive to increase the BIPOC and minority representation of both the professional and student staff. While representation of difference among staff and leadership is not the only measure of our diverse community, it is a starting place for measurement.

APR aims to ensure that Alabama residents hear and see themselves reflected in the content we produce. To that end, we produce APR Reports where we take time to dig beneath the headlines and listen to the people in our listening audience to learn more about what matters to them. Using that information, this year APR produced the series Bad Chemistry, a yearlong investigation into the harm allegedly caused by PCBs in Anniston Alabama, which impacted generations of residents in the community. We also debuted another season of Crunk Culture, hosted by Dr. Robin Boylorn, a commentary series about amplifying perspectives that are often silenced and dismissed. We also produced a series of short video documentaries throughout the state that highlight voices and stories of communities that often go underserved. Two examples from this year are The Ice Cream Experts, about an ice cream truck that traverses the Southeast selling ice cream, employing special needs adults in order to help them gain life and
social skills through their work on the truck at each location, and The Colony, a documentary on an African American community that grew and thrived in the shadow of the sundown town of Cullman. APR will continue to provide content like the examples provided above that support
the diversity of voices throughout the state of Alabama.