UNIVERSITY OF Missouri (MU) has appointed a new assistant vice chancellor (VC) for inclusive excellence and strategic initiatives for the Division of Inclusion, Diversity and Equity.
Shruti Rana, previously the senior assistant dean, diversity officer, and a professor and director of the International Law & Institutions Program at Hamilton Lugar School of Global & International Studies, Indiana, US, is the new assistant VC.
Rana’s position includes managing the Office of Inclusive Excellence and Strategic Initiatives, which provides programme assessment, educational resources, faculty support and professional development to the campus and works with the greater Columbia community.
Rana said: “We strive to develop and apply cutting-edge research, knowledge, and practises to build a supportive environment where all members of our community can thrive and flourish.
“The University of Missouri is a leader in developing the communities, competencies and knowledge that allow our faculty, staff and students to learn, grow and succeed at MU and beyond.”
Rana, a legal scholar, has published much in the fields of international law, global governance, and equality.
WOMEN HOLD 29 per cent of the board seats at Russell 3000 companies in the US, only a per cent up from 28 per cent in Q2 2022, according to a non-profit education and advocacy campaign called 50/50 Women on Boards (50/50 WOB).
This is the smallest rise in more than five years.
However, from the previous year, firms with three or more women on their boards or gender-balanced boards went up by three percentage points to 55 per cent.
Based on data given by Equilar, the 50/50 Women on Boards Gender Diversity Index shows that boards display higher diversity “when women lead” and occupy the post of CEO, board chair, or nominating committee chair.
Heather Spilsbury, chief operating officer of 50/50 WOB said: “For more than a decade, 50/50 Women on Boards has committed to advancing gender diversity on corporate boards. Our goal is for women to hold 50 per cent of the corporate board seats, with women of colour holding at least 20 per cent of all seats. While we’ve made notable progress, the recent decline in women joining boards is cause for concern.”
The percentage of women on such boards is 48 per cent when they occupy all three posts, which is quite close to gender parity.
Comparatively speaking – businesses where women hold no leadership positions and have just six per cent gender-balanced boards, the 27 firms in this category have a gender balance of 63 per cent.
US SUPREME Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson called for educating the history of anti-racism and combatting violence in the country.
She was commemorating the deaths of four black girls in a bombing by white supremacists at the 16th Street Baptist Church, Alabama, on 15 September 1963.
“I know that atrocities like the one we are memorialising today are difficult to remember and relive, but I also know that it is dangerous to forget them”, said Jackson, the first Black woman to serve on the nine-member court, who completed her first full term in June.
Jackson used part of her speech as a warning against “complacency and ignorance”.
“Learning about our country’s history can be painful, but history is also our best teacher”, she said.
“Our past is filled with too much violence, too much hatred, too much prejudice, but can we really say that we are not confronting those same evils now? We have to own even the darkest parts of our past, understand them, and vow never to repeat them.”
New standards for teaching Black history were approved by the state in July, which caused controversy.
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