The University of North Carolina System consists of a twenty-four member Board of Governors (BOG) that oversees all sixteen public universities in North Carolina, most notably North Carolina State University (NCSU) and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), and the North Carolina School of Science and Math, a boarding school for exceptional eleventh and twelfth grade grade students from across the state. On Wednesday, April 17, 2024 the BOG’s Committee on University Governance voted unanimously on a new policy relating to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) at its schools. 

The committee voted quickly, in under five minutes, with little to no discussion over the matter. The full BOG will vote on the policy at their meeting on May 23. Should the policy pass at this meeting, it will go into effect immediately, replacing the previous DEI policy adopted in 2019.  The current policy requires each institution to have a senior-level Diversity and Inclusion officer who, among other things, assists the chancellor in developing policies and advising on DEI training, outreach, and education. The current policy also established a DEI council composed of DEI officers from each of the seventeen institutions. The council acts as an advisory body for the UNC System. The new proposed policy requires these positions and more to be eliminated.

This recent move by the UNC System has caused an uproar from university students and faculty, politicians, and others from across the state. Many have pointed out that the BOG could have been influenced by political motives, with North Carolina being a swing state and elections approaching this November. The BOG is appointed by the state House and Senate in four-year terms and the state legislature has been controlled by Republicans since 2011, meaning all current BOG members were appointed by a Republican majority. Democratic Governor Roy Cooper, a UNC alumnus, spoke out against the new policy saying, “Our diversity should be used to highlight our state’s strengths, not our political divisions. Republican legislative and university leaders who attack diversity at our public universities are failing in their duty to protect students while threatening our ability to recruit top scientists, researchers and innovators who power our economy.”

NC House Speaker, Tim Moore, a Cleveland County Republican and candidate for US House, said there is interest among his fellow Republicans about discussing policies reversing or preventing DEI in the state legislature; however he says it is “still at the conversation stage,” and they will likely wait for universities to tackle the issue from their end first.

This UNC System decision comes just over a month after the University of Florida, located in Gainesville, eliminated its chief diversity officer position and thirteen other jobs in the department. This came following a Florida law (SB 266) signed by Florida’s Republican governor, Ron Desantis, last May. The law banned the use of state and federal funds to be used to advocate for DEI or promote political or social activism on public university campuses in Florida.

The UNC System BOG will vote on May 23, 2024, to decide if they will move forward with the new policy.  If the policy passes, each institution in the UNC System must fully comply with it by September 1, 2024.

Sources

WRAL

AP

AP

Spectrum News