On Dec. 4, Spotify released its ninth ‘Spotify Wrapped’. This annual campaign gives users a personalized recap of their top songs, artists, podcasts and audiobooks. As 2025 is underway, let’s take a look back at the Clarion Wrapped and the most popular articles of the past year.
In 2024, The Clarion staff published a total of 168 articles. The most popular sections were sports, opinions and arts and life.
In the news category, the most-read article was published by News Editor Liam Piper on Nov. 4. The article revealed the pivotal change in DU’s financial support toward the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (CAHSS) faculty.
These changes brought forth many layoffs and left faculty struggling with the re-hiring processes or other career endeavors.
Continuing with on-campus coverage, the most popular opinions article, written by Contributing Writer Ian Duran, was about a conversation between Provost Mary Clark and Undergraduate Student Government. Clark responded to concerns about budget cuts that CAHSS was facing during a scheduled conversation about free speech.
During the conversation, Clark also discussed new programs she intended to develop. It will be interesting to see what comes of these new programs as Clark has announced she will not be returning as Provost after this academic year.
Amidst the dwindling faith in the DU administration, The Clarion’s UNIFY section released 19 articles to bring a louder voice to communities of DU that are often unnoticed by the administration. The top article was published by former UNIFY Editor Emma Lawson, where she covered the rise of the Student Union for Socialized Progress and the actions they were taking to address the termination and working conditions of custodial staff.
While administration is a main focus point on campus, 2024 was also an incredible year for sports. In fact, it was the most covered genre with a total of 81 articles. To some surprise, the top piece was not about the DU men’s hockey team, but instead an article written by Sports Editor Josie LeCompte covering the sentencing of Coban Porter — a former DU basketball player who hit and killed 42-year-old Katharina Rothman while driving drunk near campus. Coinciding with Porter’s sentence that same week, his brother, Jontay, was banned from the NBA for a gambling violation.
With so much happening on campus, it is often easy to forget what is occurring outside of DU. The arts and life section published 22 articles to help bring the outside world of art, music and media to DU. The most-read article was written by Arts and Life Editor Anna Neumann.
Neumann covered the timeline and tumultuous relationship between famed rappers Kendrick Lamar and Drake.
2024 was a busy and rewarding year for the staff at The Clarion; yet, the work is not finished. With the growing volunteer membership, it is fully possible that The Clarion could double the number of articles released in 2024.
To help the club achieve this goal, become a contributing writer and attend Monday pitch meetings at 6 p.m. in room 301 of the Anderson Academic Commons.
