Training On Again

We noted in an earlier post that diversity training had been suspended at the UC-linked Dept. of Energy labs.* It appears that the training is back. Whether the latest executive order might have an effect is unknown.**

From the San Francisco Chronicle: One of the two federally funded Bay Area labs that scrapped their diversity program because of a new Trump administration directive said it will reinstate the initiative, according to a memo reviewed by The Chronicle. The resurrection of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s diversity, equity and inclusion program comes after lab Director Mike Witherell told employees that the program would be suspended on orders from the White House, which recently called such initiatives “un-American propaganda training sessions.”

The Berkeley lab is managed by the University of California, but funded largely by taxpayer dollars through the Department of Energy. More than 1,400 scientists and engineers work at the lab, which conducts unclassified research across several disciplines. In another memo over the weekend, Witherell said a review of the lab’s diversity initiatives, combined with “clarified guidance” from the DOE, found that trainings offered at the Berkeley lab “are not of concern.”...

Another lab run partly by UC but funded by the DOE, The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, also suspended parts of its diversity training, The Chronicle reported last week. Lynda Seaver, a spokeswoman for the Livermore lab, said the training seminars that were postponed pending review by the DOE are expected to be rescheduled “in the near future.”

Full story at https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Lawrence-Berkeley-lab-reverses-decision-to-scrap-15588316.php

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*http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2020/09/no-training.html

**http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2020/09/applicable-to-uc.html