Toward the end of 2025, Spotify users frantically refreshed the app to view their yearly ‘Spotify Wrapped.’ The personalized recap reveals users’ listening habits including top artists, albums, minutes listened and the newest addition released on Dec. 3, 2025 — listening age. Following this tradition is the second annual Clarion Wrapped.
In 2025, The Clarion received over 305,000 views and published 323 articles — 155 more articles than in 2024 — and six print editions.
The section with the most stories in 2025 was Arts & Life with 78 articles, followed by News with 68 articles and Sports and Unify with 60 articles. Opinions finished the year closely behind with 57 stories.
The top-viewed story was Executive Editor Anna Neumann’s article published in the Arts & Life section on Feb. 3, with 3,151 views. This story revealed the ongoing workplace conflicts at the Phoenix Tattoo Company. Neumann thoroughly investigated the wrongdoings of shop owner Jillian Johnson, including screenshots, current and former employees’ corroborations and public record requests.
The next viewed story was former News Editor Liam Piper’s article released on April 7, with 2,361 views. This article covered Judge Ed Chen of Northern California’s extension of the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program that protected nearly 350,000 Venezuelans from deportation.
As a current update, the Trump administration released that Venezuela no longer remains on the TPS as of Oct. 3. This decision has and will prove difficult for Venezuelans living in the United States due to the recent capture of Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro.
Piper also wrote the third most viewed article, on June 2 with 1,824 views. This story reported on the results of the no confidence vote in Chancellor Jeremy Haefner. The actions of Chancellor Haefner and his administration have been continuously met with student dissatisfaction, which Piper explained in the breakdown of the Faculty Senate meeting.
News remains on the most viewed stories list, with 1,668 views of an article by contributing writer Ian Duran published on Jan. 13. The article revealed information on the U.S. homelessness crisis and how President Trump intends to fix it. Duran focuses on Colorado’s unhoused population statistics and presents evidence explaining why Trump’s proposed solutions would be insufficient.
Further, Duran highlights ways students can help address the crisis, including Colectivo de Paz’s CARE program, where meals are prepared for the unhoused in the Community Commons kitchen.
Closing out the top five most read stories was current News Editor Zoe Klawetter’s article published on Jan. 13 with 1,476 views. This story covered the changes to the Resident Assistants (RA) role. Where the former RA role changed from one job to three separate ones: Resident Mentors, Apartment Managers and Community Assistants.
These changes went into effect this academic school year and have been met positively.
“As a student employee, I think it’s great because I can’t imagine also having to be on call, on top of everything else I am doing,” said Resident Mentor Louisa Wachter.
Yet, these changes have also brought forth some challenges.
“I have heard that it can be difficult because you don’t have as much of an oversight with what is going on with your residents, because there is no communication between the CAs and RMs, in my experience,” said Wachter.
While campus coverage and widespread news dominated the top five list, similar sentiments were felt for other sections’ top viewed stories.
Duran published the top viewed Opinions story on Feb. 24, where he connected the College of Arts and Humanities (CAHSS) no confidence vote to the actions of the administration and the repercussions it would have for CAHSS. Duran also detailed his dismay, revealing that the English department was a core reason why he chose to attend DU, and was disheartened by the proposed cuts and restructuring.
In the Unify section, current Editor-In-Chief Alyssa Avila published the most viewed story on April 21. This article revealed DU’s implicitness following the Trump administration’s dismantlement of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs. Avila detailed DU’s DEI Action Plan while also revealing that DU released statements confirming their compliance with federal laws.
Since then, an August email sent to the DU community revealed that several DEI initiatives were to be discontinued after being considered unlawful. Similarly, in the 2025 State of the University Address, Haefner revealed further DEI training cuts and the renaming of The Cultural Center to the Community Support and Engagement division.
Among dwindling faith in administration and the current political environment, other authors published articles covering different perspectives and genres.
The top Sports story was written by current Copy Editor Nick Allen on March 3. This story revealed that previous Coach Jeff Wulbrun would be placed on leave and replaced by assistant coach Shammond William during last year’s men’s basketball season.
After switching leadership, the team had a record of 1-2 in the Summit League, making their overall season record 11-21.
2025 was a significantly busy year for The Clarion that was met with valuable reporting and impactful journalism. While the year has come to an end, the stories have not and The Clarion will continue to work and release articles (and crosswords that are correctly formatted).
If you want a chance to be included in the 2026 ‘Clarion Wrapped’ and help the staff double the number of articles published, attend the weekly meetings at 6 p.m. in Anderson Academic Commons (AAC) in room 290.
