Akin Deen-Abudu
West Virginia University College of Law, Rising 3L
May 24, 2008
The Legislature and Corporate Diversity

Today we took a tour of the state legislature building. From the outside the building looks plain and looks like any other administrative building but upon entering I was amazed at how beautiful the building was. It was decorated with different stones which are made by hand. As we entered one of the rooms, our tour guide informed us that all the wooden furnitures were carved by hand by a single individual whose picture graced the rooms.

Todays lecture with Prof cummings focused on corporate social responsibility, the NAFTA agreement and diversity on corporate boards. The term corporate social responsibility means the corporation must be responsible toward society and the environment for the impact of its actions. We discussed several ways corporations can give back to the community especially to the society in other countries in which they operate. For example, some ways American companies can give back to the communities in Mexico include providing jobs, building schools, and just helping to stimulate the economy which will lead to growth. We also talked about philanthropists and how individual shareholders can donate their own money to charities of their choice or to schools of their choice, as long as they do not spend the companies money.

On the issue of diversity, we discussed the fact that most corporate boards are still comprised of older white males. Most executives and/or board of directors are often rich, well educated and affluent men. Shockingly in 2001, approximately 13% of fortune 500 companies had no female members and in 2005 the percentage dropped to about 10%. Contrast that with 85% of Fortune 1000 Board seats being filled by white males and the need for diversity is striking. The need for diversity on corporate boards is increasing as some businesses have recently refused to do business with companies and law firms who do not have a diverse board. Also I believe that having a diverse corporate board leads to better cooperation among employees. Prof cummings also had the class participate in a little board room exercise. He appointed himself CEO of a company and chose four African American executives two of which were women and also four white executives, two of which were also women. The goal I believe was to show how a typical corporate board meeting takes place and to show the importance and benefit of having a diverse corporate board.