From the desk of PIT-UN’s Director, Andreen Soley

Dear PIT UNiverse,

Just over three years ago, New America, in partnership with the Ford and Hewlett foundations, officially launched the Public Interest Technology University Network (PIT-UN) with 21 charter members. Today, we are a 43-member strong nationwide Network with an open application each fall and our third Network Challenge closing this Thursday.

To date, our Network Challenge has distributed over $7.8 million dollars to support 69 projects across our membership that are intended to help tomorrow's leaders build a technology ecosystem that centers justice and equity, particularly for the most marginalized and vulnerable

I am grateful for and invigorated by the progress being made. Here is just a sampling of the funded projects that are bearing fruit, and that animate the vision of PIT:

• New York University will hold its inaugural A Better Tech: Public Interest Technology Convention & Career Fair on October 14-15, 2021.
• Arizona State University’s Master of Science in PIT is set to graduate its first cohort in December 2021.
• The June launch of Dr. Latanya Sweeney’s Public Interest Technology Lab at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center is a crucial step toward supporting PIT-UN students and researchers.
• Carnegie Mellon University’s new interdisciplinary course, Computational Ethics for NLP has been adopted by Stanford, MIT, University of Massachusetts, and Georgia Tech. (Look for best practices for adopting the course in a future issue.)
• PIT students' research led to a Washington Post article on the presence of anti-Black discrimination in China the COVID-19 pandemic.
• CUNY CSI graduating its first cohort of BIPOC students in 2022 with Associate of Arts (AA) degrees having taken courses with a focus on public interest technology.
• Princeton University continues its PIT-UN-wide fellowship program for undergraduates at consumer protection agencies for the second year.
• The Stanford Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity hosted the 2021 Tech and Racial Equity Conference: Anti-Racist Technologies for a Just Future in May.

The newsletter is taking a brief pause for the summer. However, we’ll continue to share more stories, best practices, and key lessons with our members and the PIT community through monthly webinars, our annual convening, and expanded coverage in our August newsletter.

You’re invited to participate in our community by:

• Joining us at the PIT-UN annual convening on November 1-2, 2021;(please save the date, and we will send more information shortly.)
• Applying to become an expert evaluator in our Network Challenge (use access code “PIT-UNEC” & enter Evaluator in the Organization field);
• Submitting story ideas for the newsletter to pituninfo@newamerica.org; and
• Nominating yourself to participate in our “5 Questions” video series (launching in the next issue).

Please reach out to my colleague Alberto Rodriguez to let us know about your work and what is happening in the PIT universe. After all, this network aims to cover all things PIT, and you are the ones driving those developments.

Best,

Andreen Soley

Director, Public Interest Technology University Network