Weekly Report 3-28

Meta Selects Texas Southern University as Research Partner to Enhance Instagram Experience

By Stacy M. Brown

NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

Texas Southern University has been selected to be part of the launch of a new research project by Meta. This research, led by Meta’s Civil Rights and Responsible AI Teams, is being done with the goal of creating a better user experience for historically marginalized communities.

This effort will allow Meta to better understand the experiences different communities have on Instagram, how its technology may impact different groups, and what changes can be made to promote fairness on the platform.

“Texas Southern University is proud to join the Meta Civil Rights Team to be positioned at the intersection of technology and urban research. Our faculty and team members in TSU's Division of Research and Innovation, along with our other schools and colleges, will collaborate to ensure this partnership is a success to benefit communities of color,” said Michelle PennMarshall, VP for Research and Innovation at Texas Southern University.

TSU is one of four universities and partner institutions included in the research endeavor. The others are Northeastern University (Boston), the University of Central Florida (Orlando), and Oasis Labs. Over the next several months, Instagram users in the United States may be prompted to share their race or ethnicity. If they choose to participate, they’ll be directed to a survey hosted by the international research group YouGov. The responses will be split and shared between four partner institutions, without any identifying information.

“For a long time, we’ve been working to better understand and improve the experiences that people from marginalized communities are having on our apps,” said Roy L. Austin, Jr., VP and Deputy General Counsel, Civil Rights at Meta. “But since it’s always difficult to address something without measuring it first, we’ve partnered with leading researchers, civil rights and academic experts, and universities that serve these communities to do exactly that. With those partnerships, we’re rolling out this survey in a privacy-protective way as part

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of our ongoing work to continue building our products more responsibly for everyone who uses them.”

Users are not required to participate in the survey. Responses will be encrypted and de-identified. Neither TSU nor any of the other partner institutions will be able to tie responses back to any specific accounts.

For more information, please visit TSU.edu.

Source: Texas Southern University

Frito-Lay Invests $500,000 in Scholarship Program With the United Negro College Fund To Provide College Education for Black and Hispanic Students

By d-mars.com News Provider

Frito-Lay announced a partnership with the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) that will further enable Black and Hispanic students across 10 U.S. cities to attend college. The snack leader is investing $500,000 in need-based scholarships to help reduce the financial barriers to attending and graduating college. Students are encouraged to apply beginning now and until submissions close on September 29.

The scholarship will be accessible to students in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas,

Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Orlando, Phoenix, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. Each scholarship will provide assistance of up to $5,000 each to 100 Black and Hispanic students.

"Investing in these students means investing in tomorrow's success. It's a privilege to play a role in their futures," said Steven Williams, CEO PepsiCo Foods North America. "At Frito-Lay, we're proud to celebrate diversity at every level of our organization and remain committed to supporting future generations through resources that enable them to continue their education journey and achieve long-term success."

This is one of the largest scholarships in Frito-Lay history and an extension of Frito-Lay's commitment to the PepsiCo Ra-

cial Equality Journey initiative, which will contribute $570 million to address issues of inequality over the next five years. This also represents the first partnership between Frito-Lay and UNCF, which has a 75-year legacy of helping to provide equal access to education for all Americans.

"We're thrilled to partner with FritoLay to support underrepresented groups

in the communities that we call home," said Maurice E. Jenkins, Jr., executive vice president, and chief development officer, UNCF. "This partnership helps us to further act on our vision of a nation where all Americans have equal access to a college education that prepares them for rich intellectual lives, competitive and fulfilling careers, and engaged citizenship."

The eligibility for scholarship selection requires that a student be Black or Hispanic and be enrolled full-time at an accredited four-year college. To view the full list of criteria and to apply, please visit scholarships.uncf.org.

Source: Frito-Lay North America

Emory University Announces the first African American Studies Ph.D. Program in the U.S. Southeast

lish, History, Music, Political Science, Religious Studies, Sociology and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.”

mory University in Atlanta has announced the first African American Studies Ph.D. Program in the Southeast United States.

“We are accepting applications beginning in September 2022,” Carol Anderson, the Charles Howard Candler Professor of African American Studies at

In an overview posted on Emory’s website, the university noted that “as an interdisciplinary graduate program, the African American Studies Ph.D. Program is a highly selective course of study combining the expertise of an esteemed group of more than 50 core and affiliated graduate faculty with research specializations in disciplinary and interdisciplinary fields such as African and African American Studies, American Studies, Anthropology, Art History, Comparative Literature, Creating Writing, Educational Studies, Eng-

The university said the program provides rigorous training and preparation for Ph.D. students interested in careers within and outside of academia.

“Our program is organized around the four pillars upon which AAS as a field rests: interdisciplinarity, intersectionality, community engagement, and transnationalism,” officials wrote.

“Additionally, each student enrolled in the program will be equipped with specialized training in AAS through one of three cognate fields: Gender & Sexuality, Social Justice & Social Movements, and Expressive Arts & Cultures.”

Beginning with the first AAS Ph.D. cohort in Fall 2023, officials said they expect to enroll four new Ph.D. students each year.

The school also anticipates that each student will complete the degree within five to six years.

According to the fact sheet, all Ph.D. students are fully funded for five years with an annual stipend of at least $31,000, a tuition remission, and health insurance. Though each student is guaranteed funding and support for five years, funding for a sixth year – if needed – will be possible. For more, please visit www.emory.edu.

Source: National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA)

NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent