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posted by cmn32480 on Monday March 27 2017, @12:17PM   Printer-friendly
from the HBCU.GOOG dept.

Howard University, a historically black institution located in Washington, D.C., will open a branch located within Google's campus/HQ in Mountain View, California:

Silicon Valley's leading tech companies have long been stumped over how to diversify. Despite efforts to recruit and retain black and Latino engineers, the numbers haven't budged much, if at all. Google is trying a new tack. The company announced Thursday it is creating a college campus at its Mountain View headquarters that's geared toward students at historically black colleges and universities.

The campus, called Howard West, will launch this summer in partnership with Howard University of Washington, D.C. About 25 to 30 rising Howard juniors and seniors majoring in computer science will qualify for the program's first 12-week program, which will be taught by senior Google engineers and Howard faculty. "Howard West will continue Howard's tradition of providing historically unprecedented access to opportunity, only now with a 21st century twist: Literal real estate at the center of the digital economy," Bonita Stewart, Google's vice president of global partnerships, said in a statement.

Experts believe the partnership is the first of its kind within the tech industry. "At face value, it seems like Google is invested in this," said Jane Stout, an official with the Computing Research Association, a Washington group that studies diversity issues in tech. Google is "putting their money where their mouth is. They are trying something that is pretty revolutionary," Stout said. The program will take place at existing Google buildings. Students will not need to pay extra tuition to attend Howard West and will be given a stipend and support for housing, provided by Howard, which is well aware of the sky-high rental prices in Silicon Valley. The intention is for Howard West to be open to students at other historically black universities and colleges starting in the summer of 2018.

Google announcement. Also at CNN Money.


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  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday March 28 2017, @12:24AM (7 children)

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday March 28 2017, @12:24AM (#484951) Journal

    Now we just have to deal with Trump...

    Run a candidate who isn't pure shit and can pull more than 4% of the vote. Democracy works when you give it a try.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 28 2017, @01:59AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 28 2017, @01:59AM (#484999)

    ...then there's what USA has:

    The Orange Clown gets $5B of media, gratis, because he's entertaining.
    Everyone else gets basically zip for free.
    "It [Trump's candidacy] may not be good for America, but it's damn[ed] good for CBS." --CBS CEO Les Moonves

    Commission on Presidential Debates - A racket wholly-owned by the Republican and Democrat parties.
    If a 3rd-party candidate gets near its threshold for participation, the threshold gets raised.
    For their polling, they ask something other than "Who would you like to be president?"

    Election Day not a federal holiday.
    Election Day is on a workday.

    An increasing number of states requiring a -specific- kind of ID to vote.
    (A gun license is OK; an ID from a state-run college is not.)

    Only 1 state where you can show up and just vote that day (North Dakota).

    First-past-the-post system instead of ranked voting.

    Election campaigns are not publicly-funded.

    Voting machines.
    Voting machines running M$Windoze. [xkcd.com]

    -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday March 28 2017, @09:36PM (2 children)

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday March 28 2017, @09:36PM (#485490) Journal
      I agree with most of what you wrote. But...

      The Orange Clown gets $5B of media, gratis, because he's entertaining. Everyone else gets basically zip for free.

      I don't suggest that you vote for someone merely on the basis of how well they can play the media. But it is a strength and may indicate areas of competence in the candidate.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 29 2017, @08:41PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 29 2017, @08:41PM (#486166)

        That's not what happened, however.

        Had Lamestream Media *critiqued* what he was saying--y'know, NEWS ANALYSIS--then *that* would have been useful.
        Instead, when he would say something after he had previously said THE OPPOSITE, Lamestream Media let is slide, treated his appearances as entertainment.
        Trump Flip-Flopped 3 Times In 3 Days On Minimum Wage [motherjones.com]

        If you wanted to find some actual critique, you had to abandon legacy/for-profit media.
        Here, I'm referring specifically to Pacifica Radio.
        Heh. For years at KPFK, History professor Jon Wiener had a weekly show called "Four O'Clock Wednesdays".
        There were recently some management decisions and a subsequent rejiggering of the schedule.
        Jon ended up on Thursdays and his show is now called "Trump Watch".

        Oddly enough, some of the best critiques of public personalities come not from "news" outfits but from comedians.
        Combine Pacifica and comedians and you have The Jimmy Dore Show [google.com].

        I don't understand why any media outlet would put a politician on the air in real time.
        I'm reminded of how while Bernie was speaking to 7000 people in Phoenix, for 20 minutes, CNN pointed a live camera at an empty podium [google.com] where Trump was expected to appear.

        N.B. Jimmy likes to remind us that, in CNN, one N stands for News (and the other stands for NOT).

        It makes for much better programming to record the politicians' swill and analyze it piece-by-piece later after it's been fact-checked.
        That's Jimmy's approach.
        If you're thinking of Jon Stewart or Mort Sahl, you're on the right track.

        If Lamestream Media would do something similar, *that* would be useful.
        With all the technology available to them, they could also overlay graphics like LIAR and NOT TRUE and NONSENSE on the video of the slimeball as was done with the Batman TeeVee show from half a century ago (ZONK! KA-POW!).

        Now -that- would be informative as well as entertaining for the folks still stuck in pre-puberty.

        -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

        • (Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday March 30 2017, @04:49AM

          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Thursday March 30 2017, @04:49AM (#486331) Journal
          Still not a fault of Trump or democracy.

          Off topic, I think this is the key reason that hate speech laws will fail hard in the EU. It generates a large amount of free publicity for the defendant. Most targets are poor saps and won't benefit in the least. But for the career politician or trouble maker, you know the ones that these laws were supposedly made to prevent, they can be in and out of court rooms for years, milking that publicity.
  • (Score: 1) by butthurt on Tuesday March 28 2017, @09:04PM (2 children)

    by butthurt (6141) on Tuesday March 28 2017, @09:04PM (#485472) Journal

    Ok, what's the offer in exchange for 30+ states reducing their voting power? And why is the popular vote more important than getting rid of first past the post?

    --/comments.pl?sid=16557&cid=428282 [soylentnews.org]

    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday March 28 2017, @09:24PM (1 child)

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday March 28 2017, @09:24PM (#485485) Journal
      And? Clinton didn't lose because because of the electoral college. She lost because she was a terrible candidate.
      • (Score: 1) by butthurt on Tuesday March 28 2017, @10:01PM

        by butthurt (6141) on Tuesday March 28 2017, @10:01PM (#485505) Journal

        > And?

        And the electoral college system is a greatly compromised form of democracy.

        > Clinton didn't lose because because of the electoral college. She lost because she was a terrible candidate.

        Both were factors, I'd say. Also:

        Michigan officials declared in late November that Trump won the state's count by 10,704 votes. But hold on – a record 75,355 ballots were not counted.

        The uncounted ballots came mostly from Detroit and Flint, majority-Black cities that vote Democratic.

        [...]
        An eye-popping 449,092 Michiganders are on the Crosscheck suspect list.

        -- http://www.gregpalast.com/the-republican-sabotage-of-the-vote-recounts-in-michigan-and-wisconsin/ [gregpalast.com]