In a recent interview with CNN Business, Curley claims that her former leaders of Google believe that HBCU Computer Science does not have the technical skills needed for successful Google technology careers, and that they regularly try to resist her for more black technology. majoring in employment, although she says this is what the company hired her for.
Friday’s meeting was convened by the president and CEO of Thurgood Marshall College Fund, Harry Williams, whose nonprofit supports state-run HBCUs and other predominantly black institutions. Williams said the presidents of Howard University, Florida A&M University, North Carolina A&T University, Prairie View A&M University and Morgan State University participated in a 60-minute virtual session Friday night with Pichai and seven members of Google’s senior leadership team to work together. to work. forward.
“We are all encouraged about 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 substantive partnership in a number of areas, from increased hiring to capacity-building efforts that will increase HBCU’s technological talent pipeline.”
Williams said Gebru and Curley’s allegations about Google were not discussed during the meeting.
“It’s a personnel matter,” he said. “The presidents have made it very clear regarding the students. If they send students (to Google), they should feel good about the situation.”
Prior to the meeting, Morgan State University President David Wilson organized a focus group with MSU Google technology exchange students and alumni currently working at Google to get their feedback on how the company treats black HBCU students and graduates.
Wilson said on Google on Friday that he heard mostly from Morgan State students.
“One of our black women (students) did tell me that she was the first black woman in her immediate team at Google and one of only two blacks in the larger team,” Wilson told CNN Business. ‘But she’s never been made to feel like she does not belong … They have good experiences. ‘
Accusations of contempt
“We have a large team of recruiters who are working incredibly hard to increase the hiring of Black + and other under-represented talent at Google, including a dedicated team that is working together and strengthening our relationship with HBCUs,” the company said.
“Google said: ‘our case studies and feedback case studies and curriculum analysis show that the current departments of HBCU (Computer Science) are not achieving strong technical talent,'” Curley said in a series of tweets Thursday night. quote from the report. ” HBCU CS students struggle with basic coding, algorithms, and data structures. ”
“We were very concerned about the program’s objectives and how it is partnering with HBCUs,” a Google spokesman said in an email. “We have no comment on any prior proposals.”
“We have expanded our recruitment efforts to more than 800 schools,” the company said.
Curley was interviewed late Friday night, saying the success of the black college that Google offers is the result of the work she and others in her team have been doing for six years. She was not surprised that Morgan State students had positive things to say about their Google experiences.
“Those kids were my kids that I brought into the company,” Curley said. “(Google) can take credit for that because I laid the foundation, me and two other black women.”