Dive Brief:
- Colleges within the University of North Carolina System have eliminated 59 positions related to diversity, equity and inclusion following a May directive from the network’s governing board to end DEI efforts. The system also realigned an additional 131 positions away from DEI programming.
- The cuts to DEI resulted in a savings of just over $17 million across its 17 institutions, according to the UNC System. The policy directed the system’s universities to reallocate the funds toward broader student success initiatives.
- The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the system’s flagship campus, made the most dramatic staffing changes, eliminating 20 positions and reassigning 27 more. The DEI cuts at the university totaled nearly $5.4 million.
Dive Insight:
In May, the UNC System’s governing board approved a policy that banned DEI offices and titles at its member colleges, and asked universities to report on staff and funding reductions for such programs by Sept. 1. It also mandated institutional neutrality, meaning officials can’t endorse political or social views.
The policy bars employees and officers from "compelling others’ speech and refrain from promoting political or social concepts through training or required belief,” according to a campuswide message last month from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
Guidance from the system’s legal affairs division warned that colleges must make substantive changes to the contested jobs, not just tweak employee's titles.
“The actual work of the University must return to advancing the academic success of students with different backgrounds not different political causes — job titles and responsibilities should follow suit,” the June guidance said.
Now, the UNC System's board has shared the results of the systemwide changes.
At UNC-Chapel Hill, job cuts included seven positions with its central administrative office, which housed a now-eliminated diversity office, and six within its school of medicine, where DEI-related employees are transitioning to other activities.
A majority of employees in eliminated positions accepted new jobs within the university.
Of the former central DEI office's $1.8 million budget, 55% will be reinvested toward student success and employee professional development and well-being initiatives, the university said in a campus wide message Wednesday. The rest will support salaries for reassigned employees.
After UNC-Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University made the biggest cuts, eliminating eight positions and reassigning 29 others. The land-grant institution reported DEI cuts totaling $5 million.
Likewise, UNC Charlotte dissolved its three DEI-related offices. It also cut nine positions and restructured nine more, the system said this week.
A majority of the universities reported savings under $500,000, and two — Winston-Salem State and Fayetteville State universities — reported no additional savings as a result of the staff restructuring.
All 17 institutions made programmatic changes to comply with the system’s new policy, including five universities that did not eliminate any jobs.
North Carolina is just one of a handful of conservative-led states seeing the effects of a crackdown on DEI, though many efforts elsewhere are being spearheaded by lawmakers.
In Texas, public colleges scrambled to comply with a state law that took effect Jan. 1 banning DEI offices, programs and training. The University of Texas at Austin, the UT System's flagship, laid off dozens of DEI employees this year in response, according to local news sources.
