Google CEO and HBCU leaders discuss talent pipeline for Black tech workers – Boston News, Weather, Sports

(CNN) – Historically, leaders of five Black colleges and universities meet with Google CEO Sundar Pichai On Friday, to discuss the company’s relationship with schools, following allegations of anti-HBCU graduate discrimination by a former Google employee.

On December 21, former Google diversity recruiter April Curley He tweeted that he was fired by the company in September after repeatedly voicing his concerns about how the tech chain treats black college graduates.

In recent interviews with CNN Business, Curley argues that former Google supervisors believe that HBCU computer science graduates do not have the technical skills required for successful Google tech careers, and regularly resisted attempts to recruit more Black college technical majors. he says the company hired him for this.

Owned by Google denied Commenting on specific workplace claims that emerged less than a month after Curley broke up with a leading AI researcher Timnit Gebru. Both Curley and Gebru are Black women. Each one Twitter threads They tell their Google experiences Went viral in December arouse anger in the world of technology and asking questions renewed commitment Google hired more Black employees after George Floyd was killed by the police last year.

National diversity and participation organization HBCU 20 × 20 suddenly It is cancelled Partnership with Google in response to the controversy that caught the attention of HBCU executives, whose schools are partnerships for technology exchange with Google.

Friday’s meeting was organized by Harry Williams, president and CEO of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, which supports nonprofit publicly funded HBCUs and other predominantly Black institutions. Williams said that the heads of Howard University, Florida A&M University, North Carolina A&T University, Prairie View A&M University and Morgan State University all attended a 60-minute virtual session on Friday evening to work with Pichai and seven members of Google’s senior leadership team. Further.

“We are all courageous for the future partnership,” Google and HBCU leaders said in a joint statement emailed to CNN late Friday night. “The meeting paved the way for a more solid partnership in many areas, from more recruiting, HBCUs to capacity building efforts to increase technology capabilities.”

Williams said Gebru and Curley’s allegations regarding Google were not discussed during the meeting.

“It’s a staff issue,” he said. “The Presidents have made it very clear that since it is about students, they must feel good about the situation if they send students (to Google).”

Prior to the meeting, David Wilson, president of Morgan State University, arranged a focus group with MSU Google tech exchange students and alumni who are currently working at Google to get feedback on how the company is treating Black HBCU students and graduates.

Wilson told Google at the meeting Friday that what he heard from Morgan State students was mostly positive.

“One of our Black girls (students) told CNN Business that she was the first Black woman to be on her close team at Google, and only one of two Blacks in the larger team,” Wilson told CNN Business. To feel like they don’t belong… They’re having good experiences.

Humiliation accusations

Thursday night, Curley tweeted Google’s HBCU recruiting team replaced her with a White woman and online review. Google refused to directly respond to Curley’s claim.

“We have a large recruiting team working incredibly hard to increase recruitment of Black + and other underrepresented talent, including a dedicated team that partners with HBCUs and strengthens our relationships,” the company said.

Curley also accused Google employees of writing a humiliating report about HBCU alumni in 2014, when he joined the company, according to his LinkedIn account. Curley said he had a copy of the report.Project Bison Proposal, “Howard University’s mascot.

“Google, our ‘interview feedback case studies and curriculum analysis show that current HBCU (computer science) Departments are not graduating strong technical skills,” Curley said in a series of tweets Thursday night, citing the report. “HBCU Computer science students struggle with the most basic coding, algorithms, and data structures.”

Google said Google in Residence The program that sent company software engineers to teach computer science courses on HBCU campuses began in 2013.

“We’ve been very clear about the goals of this program and how this is a partnership with HBCUs,” a Google spokesperson said via email. “We don’t have any comments on the previous offers.”

Google says it has collaborated with HBCUs in a number of ways to prepare Black college students for competitive software engineer internships and full-time roles at the company. technology exchange programsHoward University computer science residency, Howard west, and her Computer Science Summer Institute A program for high school students in the United States and Canada.

Last summer, Google committed to increasing Black representation at senior levels and increasing leadership representation of “underrepresented groups” by 30% by 2025. According to the company’s latest report, only 3.7% of Google’s workforce in the US is Black diversity report. Google said it held 19 HBCU graduates in 2019.

“We expanded our recruiting efforts to more than 800 schools,” the company said.

In a late Friday night interview, Curley said the Black college recruitment successes suggested by Google were the product of six years of work he and others on his team had put forth. She’s not surprised that Morgan State students have positive things to say about their Google experience.

“These guys were my kids I brought to the company,” Curley said. “(Google) can get a share of it because I did the basics like myself and two other Black women.”

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