Early Thursday morning, dozens of students from across North Carolina, some from as far as Asheville and Charlotte, gathered at the Dillon building in downtown Raleigh, home to the UNC System Board of Governors’ offices.
Despite security escorting them to stand across the street from the Dillon, and construction workers hammering beside them, students stepped up to give speeches protesting the board’s expected repeal of the UNC Policy Manual’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policy, which supports and facilitates UNC system universities’ efforts to foster inclusive environments.
Naila Din, an NC State student and student government senator, says the repeal will result in the loss of UNC institutions’ paid DEI officers, which will affect diversity-focused student organizations.
“There’s not going to be much support for [these groups] because the repeal of the policy will remove a lot of focus and initiatives at the administrative level,” Din says. “So there’s not going to be that sense of urgency to ensure that students or their community on campus is really working towards having a more DEI-focused campus.”
At 11:00 a.m, the Board of Governors approved the DEI policy repeal. Only two of the 24 board members, Joel Ford and Sonja Phillips, voted against the repeal.
Peter Hans, UNC system president, says universities must resist “viewing every issue and controversy through a red or blue lens.”
“We are institutionally neutral on political controversies, but that does not mean we are value neutral,” Hans said. “It is critical for higher education to recommit to creating conditions for true dialogue, modeling how to build understanding.”
Earlier this month, UNC Chapel Hill’s Board of Trustees voted to reallocate $2.3 million from the university’s DEI initiatives to public safety. The vote to repeal is only one of continued blows to UNC DEI initiatives over the past weeks.
Hwa Huang, a graduate student at NC State and member of a graduate student union, says the repeal will adversely affect institutions beyond supporting student organizations.
“If you don’t have that support structure and a capacity to provide support for people who often are going to be the target of discrimination at school or in the workplace in the UNC School System, people lose interest in applying to your institution,” Huang says.
Din says funding could become a major issue following this decision.
“We don’t understand what this legislation could pose for future funding for these individual subgroups of the [Office for Institutional Diversity],” Din says. “And so that’s worrisome.”
Ennis Wells, a NC State student and Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) co-chair, was partially responsible for organizing the rally alongside the Southern Student Action Coalition. He says students’ organization of the rally came from a place of common goals.
“We know the importance of DEI at all of our schools, just like in our Student Union,” Wells says. “A lot of the places are there because of DEI and a lot of students feel welcome because of DEI so just going in we knew that we want to keep DEI at our school.”
For Liv Barefoot, UNC Asheville student government president, and Alondra Barrera-Hernandez, UNC Asheville student government vice president, DEI changes are already impacting their university.
“We’re known for having our banners and a Black Lives Matter mural, which unfortunately has been taken down recently… based on Chancellor Kimberly van Noort’s request to remain in a neutral state,” Barrera-Hernandez says.
Ahead of the rally, UNC Charlotte students and faculty signed a petition to oppose the repeal.
The petition says the new policy was likely to end on-campus history and heritage month programs, the DigDeep faculty program which supports faculty members who want to discuss diversity issues and create inclusive classroom environments, the Inclusive Excellence Grant Program which provides services and support for diverse student and employee recruitment and retention, and the Office of Identity, Equity and Engagement.
The petition also says its writers are “concerned about the impact on the university’s ability to attract and retain faculty and students.”
Barefoot says she is “very concerned” about how the change would further affect programs at her university.
“One of our main concerns is with our Office of Multicultural Affairs, which has already been stripped down significantly. We’ve been going through a lot of reduction in force,” Barefoot says. “Cuts is what they’re calling it. We’ve seen a lot of impact on our Office of Multicultural Affairs already, where it is currently down to one person working in the office.”
When the meeting began at 10 a.m., the Board allowed only five members of the public, including Din, Barefoot, and Barrera-Hernandez, to attend on a first-come-first-served basis.
One hour later, when the Board of Governors announced its decision, all three left the meeting early. Din led the trio through a side door while holding her fist up, showing a “Free Palestine” bracelet on her wrist.
Barefoot says she felt the Board of Governors was not “acknowledging or respecting student voices.”
“It’s really shameful on both the state and national level for such a massive public institution, across all 17 of these schools we’re looking at now, that they have decided to blatantly ignore these voices, these concerns that have been continually raised,” Barefoot says.
Some organizations, such as the ACLU of North Carolina, oppose the repeal. Chantal Stevens, executive director of the ACLU of North Carolina, said the ACLU “stands in solidarity” with students.
“Our university campuses must be environments where students feel included and are able to fully engage academically, and DEI programs serve an important role in achieving this,” Stevens said in a press statement. “Pulling funding from these programs undermines these efforts and sends a worrying message about how committed our universities are to protecting the rights of students to be free from discrimination on the basis of their race, ethnicity, disability, or other protected classes.”
Huang says he hopes the UNC administrations will eventually recognize students’ perspectives.
“My hope is that the energy that we’re seeing from the UNC encampment, to people showing up today, could be the path forward to build up the numbers that we need to continue the momentum,” Huang says. “Because this is not the only time they have meetings up there. I want people to remember that.”
Wells says the main purpose of the rally was to communicate students’ feelings.
“Even if they don’t listen to us, they can see us and they’re definitely at least annoyed at us by now,” Wells says. “So we’re gonna keep showing up and we’ll get more people every time.”
Correction: UNC Chapel Hill’s Board of Trustees voted to reallocate $2.3 million from the university’s budget for DEI initiatives to public safety, not the UNC System Board of Governors.
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