Penn State to recognize Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Juneteenth as holidays

Penn State will observe Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the Juneteenth National Independence Day as official University holidays beginning in 2023, the University announced today (May 6).

“Making these two significant days official University holidays is part of our continuing efforts to align Penn State’s policies with our values in diversity, equity and inclusion,” said Penn State President Eric J. Barron. “Having these recognized as official University holidays will provide students, faculty and staff the opportunity to observe and honor these holidays in their own unique manner.”

For a number of years, Penn State has observed Martin Luther King Jr. Day by canceling academic instruction to allow students and faculty to participate in service activities, observances and festivities. The holiday recognizes the birthday, life and legacy of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and is celebrated on the third Monday of January.

Juneteenth, which is celebrated on June 19 and is sometimes called Freedom Day or Emancipation Day, recognizes the end of slavery in the United States and commemorates the freeing of 250,000 African American slaves in Texas on June 19, 1865. The holiday has been celebrated in the African American community since 1866. It was officially made a federal holiday in 2021 and became an official Pennsylvania holiday on June 19, 2019.

“These are important holidays for all of us to reflect on Black experiences in American history and celebrate the progress that has been made and those who have made that progress possible,” said Marcus Whitehurst, vice provost for Educational Equity. “We still have work to do, and I hope that by celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth in the Penn State community we can continue to work together to advance the ideas that they commemorate.”

The updated policy will give Penn State students faculty and staff the day off on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth, and will not impact other University holidays or breaks.

Amazon names Rosalind Brewer to board of directors

Amazon says it has named Starbucks executive Rosalind Brewer to its its all-white board, making her the second black woman to ever sit on the online retailer’s board of directors.

Brewer is currently the chief operating officer at coffee chain Starbucks. She has also been CEO of Sam’s Club, the warehouse club owned by Walmart.

Seattle-based Amazon and other big companies have been under pressure to diversify their boards, which tend to be made up of white men.

With Brewer’s addition, Amazon’s 10-person board now has four women members.

[SOURCE: MARKETWATCH]

Report: Nearly Three Quarters of the House Have No Senior Staffers of Color

Almost three-quarters of House members —313 in all —have no top staffers of color, according to a report from the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies released on Tuesday.

“Top staff” refers to top staff chiefs of staff, legislative directors, and communications directors in D.C. personal offices, chiefs of staff, policy directors and communications directors in the top four leadership offices of each party and staff directors assigned to full committees.

Just under 14 percent of all top House staff are people of color, according to the report, “Racial Diversity Among Top U.S. House Staff,” which relied on data that reflected the demographic makeup of staffers as of June 1. At that time, people of color accounted for 38 percent of the U.S. population.

A total of 329 House members are white. “Chiefs of staff of color” led the personal offices of only 16 of those, the report stated. Ten worked in Republican offices and six in Democratic offices.

For all top staff in offices of white Democratic members, the report found that less than 8 percent are people of color. For white Republican members, 3 percent of top staffers are people of color.

Among the report’s other findings:

No Latino, Asian American/Pacific Islander, or Native American is a staff director for any of the 40 committee staff director positions in the House.

No Latino, Asian American/Pacific Islander, or Native Americans holds any of the 24 top staff positions in the four leadership offices in the House.

Latinos make up less than 28 percent of Democratic Congressional Hispanic Caucus Members’ offices.

Latinos make up over 29 percent of Republican Congressional Hispanic Conference members’ offices.

Of the top staffers who are black, almost 61 percent are women.

Of the top Latino staffers, almost 45 percent are women.

Of the top Asian American/Pacific Islander, over 31 percent are women.

In the offices of members who are Asian American/Pacific Islander, over 77 percent of staffers are white.

Read more: Report: Nearly Three Quarters of the House Have No Senior Staffers of Color

Rep. Cedric Richmond bashes Trump’s move to scrap affirmative action

The head of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) hammered the Trump administration on Tuesday for revoking federal guidelines that encourage colleges to consider race in their admissions determinations, calling the move an unveiled attack on minorities.

Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.), who has long accused President Trump of pursuing policies that are overtly racist, said rescinding the Obama-era affirmative action guidelines will “turn back the clock” on efforts to encourage diversity on college campuses across the country.

“Yet again we see that this administration's goal and vision for ‘Making America Great Again’ is to reduce the role of the state in making sure our society prizes diversity and inclusion,” Richmond said in a statement. “While I am not surprised, I continue to be disappointed that the President of this great country demonstrably cares so little for its non-white residents and their interests."

[SOURCE: THE HILL]

Facebook appoints first African American to its Board of Directors

Facebook announced today the addition of Kenneth I. Chenault, CEO of American Express, to its board of directors. His appointment becomes effective Feb. 5, 2018.

“I’ve been trying to recruit Ken for years,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a press release. “He has unique expertise in areas I believe Facebook needs to learn and improve — customer service, direct commerce, and building a trusted brand. Ken also has a sense of social mission and integrity I admire and the perspective that comes from running an important public company for decades.”

Chenault, who joined American Express in 1981, has been chairman and CEO of the massive financial services company since 2001. In addition to serving on Facebook’s board, Chenault serves on the boards of IBM, Procter & Gamble, the Harvard Corporation and others.

Unlike Facebook’s other board members, Chenault is black. In fact, Chenault is the first black person to serve on Facebook’s board of directors.

“I’m delighted to join the board and look forward to working with Mark and the other directors as Facebook continues to build communities that help bring people closer to friends, family and the world around them,” Chenault said in a press release.

[SOURCE: TECHCRUNCH]

Jesse Jackson presses Facebook on lack of diversity

[SOURCE] Jesse Jackson isn’t keeping quiet about the lack of diversity in the tech industry’s ranks.

The civil rights veteran and former presidential candidate plans to attend Facebook’s annual shareholders meeting in Redwood City today, pressing the company to include more minorities on its board and within its executive ranks. He has paid similar visits to shareholder meetings of eBay, Google and Hewlett-Packard this spring.

“At its best, technology can be a tremendously positive change agent for the world,” Jackson said, in a prepared statement. “At its worst, it can hold on to old patterns that exclude people of color and women from opportunity and advancement. Silicon Valley and the tech industry must transform itself to mirror the America it depends upon for talent and customers.”

Staff diversity among tech companies has come under increasing scrutiny, with many critics decrying a “bro culture” that often tends to be white and male. Jackson and his Rainbow PUSH Coalition are trying to focus some of that attention on the lack of diversity in the tech world’s board rooms and C-suites.

They’ve had some small successes. Last week, Google announced it would release a report that includes race and gender statistics for its workforce.