The Crown Act

Abstract Communities of color within the state of Tennessee, based on the physical and cultural characteristics of hair texture and styling, have and are continuing to face injustices pertaining to the deprivation of opportunities within academic, recreational, and employment spaces. These instances of hair discrimination disproportionately impact Black individuals and other populations of color of whom come into contact with racial biases and prejudices due to a genetically predetermined factor. To combat these issues, bills HB0204 and SB0136 were proposed in January 2021 within the Tennessee General Assembly, and as introduced would establish the CROWN Act, or Create a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair. These companion bills would, if enacted, definitively prohibit discrimination in employment and public accommodation settings based on but not limited to hair texture and protective hairstyles such as braids, locs, twists, cornrows, wearing headwraps, and other cultural influenced hairstyles. Those negatively impacted by hair discrimination would thus be protected by law and employers within the state of Tennessee would be prohibited from enforcing policy inhibiting employees from wearing their hair within protective stylings or in a manner consistent with the physical characteristics of their ethnic/cultural identification. Moreover, these bills amend TCA Title 4, Chapter 21 and Titles 8, 49, and 50 by clarifying that discrimination within the workplace and public accomodations also includes prejudiced behaviors/beliefs directed against natural hair and protective stylings. Presently, SB0136 has been passed within the Senate body, however, HB0204 continues to await deliberation within the House, prolonging a much needed revision to what classifies as discriminatory practices, and perpetuating lingering racist ideologies and cultural incompetence. This paper will demonstrate that failure to pass this legislation perpetuates modernized aspects of oppression and will allow for the unethical practice of the stripping of opportunities due to a physical/cultural characteristic. Keywords: CROWN Act, hair discrimination, cultural incompetence, protective styling, cultural identificatio

Innovation in Information Systems Education-IV Mutual Fund Management Information System: An Integrated Project for the Introduction to MIS Course

Business students often find it difficult to understand the relevance of the traditional core MIS course taught as part of most business curricula. To address this problem, we made several changes to how we teach IS to business students. One of those changes consists of using cross-course projects that require the application of IS tools and concepts. This article explains one such project that is jointly assigned in an IS course and in a Finance course. In this project, students apply their understanding of financial markets and investments by selecting a set of company stocks that they then manage as a mutual fund. They must build an information system both to track their fund performance and to allow entering of buy and sell transactions. The project is popular among the students, and it reinforces numerous IS concepts and skills

Information Systems Security and Information Systems Structure: A Contingency Perspective

Although there are several general prescriptions for managers to follow in developing an information security system, these recommendations typically assume a relatively centralized, homogeneous organization with a culture that is conducive to compliance with documented rules and procedures. This paper describes a research project that is intended to understand how the IS functional structure affects the development and implementation of an information security system. Commonly-used guides, for developing an information security system, along with their imbedded assumptions about organizational structure are discussed. Elements comprising the IS functional structure are introduced, followed by discussion of the potential relationships among these elements and the elements of an information security system. Finally, a research project is described that will lead to a better understanding of these relationships

Perceptions Over Time Related to Meeting Procedures in Partially Distributed Groups

Groups use different procedural structures to organize their efforts in group meetings. These structures are affected by the group members\u27 preferences for the degree of procedural order they want in a meeting, as well as by the communication media available in the meeting environment. Analysis of thirty partially distributed experimental groups that met over a period of time indicates that members\u27 preferences for procedural order affect their perceptions of outcome satisfaction and participation. Further analysis of video tapes of the sessions should indicate how media and other factors affect the members\u27 actual attempts at providing structure to the meetings