** (ANYONE CAN SIGN THIS!!!) **

This is a petition to present to WSU leadership about the creation of Juneteenth as a university-wide holiday. Please fill out this form to support this initiative, and it will be sent as further evidence as to why such an important holiday should be recognized throughout the University.


 [ links explaining the importance of Juneteenth]
1. https://www.juneteenth.com/history.htm
2. https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/19/us/juneteenth-state-holidays-trnd/index.html

Twitter and Square annoucing Juneteenth as a company-wide holiday this week: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/09/us/juneteenth-twitter-square-holiday.html

Nike Announcement (June 11th 2020):
https://sports.yahoo.com/nike-to-recognize-juneteenth-as-an-annual-paid-holiday-141219946.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=fb

Target in Minneapolis, U.S Bank (June 16th, 2020):
https://www.startribune.com/target-best-buy-u-s-bank-make-juneteenth-company-holiday/571289432/ 

Giants will close their offices (June 17th, 2020):
https://nypost.com/2020/06/17/giants-will-close-their-offices-for-juneteenth/



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UPDATE AS OF 6/22/2020

During the call on the 19th I had with the Board of Governors, both Governor O’Brien and Governor Thompson vocalized their support of this and it WILL be discussed in greater detail in the next meeting!

Governor Thompson made it clear that this was something that she supported and in her words “ since as a University we say we are committed to diversity, equity and inclusive this is low hanging fruit”.
 
Governor O’Brien requested that the addition of Junteenth as a university holiday to be added on the agenda for their next meeting; and did not suspect it being a big issue (to add it as a university holiday I presume) given big corporations already doing this. She mentioned this would be “great first steps” and also stated she wanted to review and ensure our policies were in support of Black faculty/staff and students.


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created by: Isabella Warmbrunn
Questions ? email: fv2676@wayne.edu