In recent interviews with CNN Business, Curley claims that her former Google superiors believed that HBCU computer science graduates do not have the technical skills necessary for a successful Google tech career and that they regularly oppose her attempts to acquire more technical majors from Black University, although she says the company hired her to do so.
Friday’s meeting was hosted by Harry Williams, president and CEO of Thurgood Marshall College Fund, whose nonprofit supports government-funded 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 all took part in a 60-minute virtual session Friday night with Pichai and seven members of Google’s senior management team to collaborate. 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 recruitment to capacity building that will expand HBCU’s technical talent pipeline.”
Williams said Gebru and Curley’s allegations about Google were not discussed at the meeting.
“That’s a personnel issue,” he said. “The presidents made it very clear about the students, if they send students (to Google), they should feel good about the situation.”
Prior to the meeting, David Wilson, the president of Morgan State University, organized a focus group with MSU Google tech exchange students and alumni currently working at Google to get their feedback on how the company is dealing with Black HBCU students and graduates.
Wilson said he told Google at Friday’s meeting that what he heard from Morgan State students was mostly positive.
“One of our black women (college students) told me she was the first black woman on her direct team there at Google and one of only two blacks on the larger team,” Wilson told CNN Business. “But she was never made. To feel like she didn’t belong … They have good experiences.”
Allegations of disparagement
“We have a large team of recruiters who are working incredibly hard to increase the number of Black + employees and other under-represented talent at Google, including a dedicated team that works together and strengthens our relationships with HBCUs,” the company said.
“Google said,” Our case studies with interview feedback and curriculum analysis show that the current HBCU (computer science) departments do not graduate strong technical talent, “Curley wrote in a series of tweets Thursday evening. CS students grapple with the most basic coding, algorithms and data structures. ”
“We have been very candid about the goals of that program and how it is partnering with HBCUs,” a Google spokesperson said via email. “We have no comments on previous proposals.”
“We have expanded our recruitment efforts to more than 800 schools,” the company said.
Curley was interviewed late Friday night and said that Google’s successes in recruiting and hiring at Black College are the result of the work she and others on her team have done over the course of six years. She wasn’t surprised that the Morgan State students had positive things to say about their Google experiences.
“Those kids were my kids that I brought into the business,” said Curley. “(Google can) take the credit for laying the foundation, myself and two other black women.”