The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Board of Trustees on Monday announced funding for diversity, equity and inclusion programs amid campus protests across the country and a review of the state university’s diversity policy. It resolved to allocate $2.3 million to public safety measures.
The unanimous decision comes ahead of next week’s vote by the UNC Board of Governors that could limit DEI efforts and lead to layoffs. The board’s governance committee approved the changes for all public colleges and universities in April, but the changes require a vote by the full board.
Trustee Marty Kotis, vice chair of the budget committee, said the money is needed for campus security and safety in light of the pro-Palestinian protests that swept through university campuses in late April and early this month. Thirty-six demonstrators were detained at UNC-Chapel Hill, six of whom were arrested, and the American flag was replaced with a Palestinian flag during the April 30 protest.
“It’s important to consider the needs of all 30,000 students, not just the 100 or so students who want to disrupt the university’s operations,” he said.
Kotis also called DEI policies, first introduced at North Carolina’s flagship university in 2017, “discriminatory and divisive,” according to Chapel Hill-based public radio station WUNC.
“I think DEI in many people’s minds is about division, exclusion and indoctrination,” Kotis said, according to WUNC. “We need more unity and unity, more dialogue, more diversity of thought.”
The UNC Office of Diversity and Inclusion did not respond to USA TODAY’s messages seeking comment, but on its website it says, “By celebrating all members of the Carolina community, expanding our collective understanding, and uplifting spirits, we are committed to… The aim is to foster a sense of belonging. Diverse identities, cultures, experiences, and perspectives. ”
Nicole Hannah-Jones, a UNC alumnus and noted Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, retweeted a Raleigh News & Observer article reporting on DEI, but did not comment on it.
Hannah-Jones, who investigated the legacy of slavery in the United States and created the New York Times Magazine’s acclaimed “1619 Project,” was appointed to a UNC professorship in 2021, but the board of trustees will rejected the department’s recommendation and rejected her tenure. , leading to protests from students and faculty. She ultimately declined the post and instead joined the faculty at Howard University.
North Carolina is just the latest in a series of conservative-led states to take aim at DEI programs at public universities. Texas and Florida are the biggest states to oust them, after Republican governors Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis, respectively. North Carolina has a Democratic governor, Roy Cooper, but Republicans hold a majority of at least 20 seats in both the state Senate and House of Representatives.
