North Carolina's public universities cut 59 positions, redirected $16M in massive DEI overhaul

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (WTVD) -- The UNC Board of Governors announced that changes to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) efforts at all 17 schools saved around $17 million.

Almost 200 diversity, equity and inclusion staff positions were either cut or reassigned across North Carolina's public university system to comply with a systemwide policy that required institutions to reassess their diversity efforts, according to reports released on Wednesday. UNC System leaders said the changes allowed schools to redirect more than $16 million to success initiatives, such as recruitment efforts and scholarships.

In a first look at how the UNC System's 17 schools complied with the new diversity policy - which removed mention of diversity jobs across universities and subsequently put them at risk of elimination - the institutions' certification reports demonstrate varying approaches on how campuses chose to follow the new rule.

"The larger campuses had more work to do. The smaller campus was less so, but there was plenty of work to be done," UNC system legal counsel Andrew Tripp said.

UNC-Chapel Hill, the state's flagship university and second most populous public university as of 2023, makes up a third of eliminated positions. The second highest source of eliminations was at UNC Charlotte with nine cuts, followed by North Carolina State University with eight positions.

On the other hand, NC State led position reassignments - moving 29 people to new positions and departments. UNC-Chapel Hill realigned 27 positions. Other universities, such as East Carolina University and UNC Wilmington, chose to mostly move around positions rather than eliminate them.

"With those roles going away, there's a lot of people who are from minority backgrounds or their families aren't privileged to actually know what's going on. They need these resources to succeed." student Suraj Karki said in a criticism of the elimination of the DEI positions.

Karki said diversity is important to him on campus.

"I think in any workplace, you want people that bring new ideas. And if you see someone all in the same like group and you're kind of different, you want to bring up ideas. And I not be as comfortable. Even if it is a good idea, you might come right down, but the majority always wins."

Worries on how the policy would impact diverse recruitment and retention at universities surfaced during the board meeting, brought to the forefront by Joel Ford - one of the board's few Black members. He called on UNC System president Peter Hans to "step up" to ensure community members know that the system's universities were still welcoming to all students.

"That remains our obligation under federal law, state law and our moral obligation as well," Hans said in response.

Others, such as board member Woody White, expressed concern on a different front: how quickly and fully the policy was implemented. White voiced his skepticism on whether all universities "meaningfully" made adjustments to the policy, noting that he didn't see "the same level of velocity" in the new policy's implementation as when the 2019 policy was approved.

How we got here

In late May, the UNC Board of Governors revoked and replaced its 2019 diversity policy, which outlined several diversity jobs and their responsibility for coordinating DEI efforts across the system. What replaced it was a policy focused on committing the system to equality of viewpoints, freedom of speech and institutional neutrality - leaving diversity positions and programs in limbo.

Diversity efforts have become a subject of conservatives' ire on college campuses over the past few years, with the University of Florida and the University of Texas making national headlines for dismantling its diversity offices and cutting its staff. Diversity opponents say the practice can lead to discrimination, while its supporters say it helps level the playing field for women and people of color.

North Carolina's Republican legislative leaders are among those who have expressed concern with DEI, and, at one point, were considering legislation restricting those programs before the UNC Board of Governors stepped in.

The UNC system in June sent out sweeping guidelines that covered everything from student success initiatives to campus center programming to facilitate the changes to come. To prove compliance with the new policy, schools were required to submit certification reports that described eliminated positions, position reassignments, program changes and financial savings from cuts.

Information on how universities were following the guidance was largely kept under wraps - even from faculty members - before the Sept. 1 report submission deadline.

Now, over a week later, those newly released reports show universities eliminated 59 positions and reassigned 131 more, according to the certification report statistics summary.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.