Tower Foundation board chair, Silicon Valley entrepreneur, and Lucas College and Graduate School of Business graduate Amir Mashkoori confirmed that the board has received and accepted the resignation of board member Wanda Ginner.
“The fact that Wanda agreed to step down reflects genuine concern for the university and her desire to avoid being a distraction,” Mashkoori said. “The comments attributed to Wanda do not reflect the Tower Foundation board’s commitment to diversity, inclusivity and mutual respect.”
A graduate of SJSU’s business school and longtime CPA, Ginner has been actively involved with numerous university initiatives including an annual business plan competition awarding cash prizes to young entrepreneurs.
The board will redouble efforts to engage with the SJSU community through its members, a diverse group of students, faculty, administrators and alumni.
“The board plans to implement new procedures and participate in training to guide our interactions with all university stakeholders,” Mashkoori said.
“Many board members are alumni, all of whom want students to receive the same opportunities provided to board members when they were in college.”
“We have worked hard to be able to give back, we should be role models for the campus community and general public, and most importantly, we should celebrate our diversity by making the university a welcoming environment for all.”
As an alumni of SJSU it saddens me this incident is being minimized by simply accepting a letter of resignation. The damage has been done and it needs to be addressed. SJSU has a Mexican American Studies Department that is well-known And respected in academia and the members of that program should be consulted on the magnitude of this incident in order to minimize the chances of something like this happening again. I feel as though the reason this person is resigning is not because they understand why what they said was wrong but because people are mad and it is causing a lot of negative attention.