Across North Carolina’s public universities and some private campuses, diversity, equity and inclusion programs are undergoing a major overhaul. The sweeping shifts in federal and state policy are reshaping higher education, leaving students and faculty to respond in real time.
In 2024, the University of North Carolina Board of Governors voted to repeal its longstanding DEI policy and replace it with a new framework centered on “institutional neutrality” and equality under the law. This change required campuses to significantly restructure, and in some cases eliminate, DEI offices, scrap diversity-focused strategic goals, and redirect personnel and funding to other areas.
Reporting from The Assembly’s collaborative reporting project on how diversity efforts have evolved at NC campuses shows the impact has been far-reaching, yet uneven. Colleges across the state are navigating a difficult balance, from working to comply with federal directives, responding to state-level mandates and still meeting the needs of an increasingly diverse student population.
At the University of North Carolina Charlotte, student reporting from Niner Times documents structural changes and student reactions. With key DEI-related offices and programs dissolved, student organizations have been left to fill in the gaps left behind and create their own programming and support networks.
The changes in North Carolina are part of a broader national trend to reconsider and restrict DEI initiatives, and they raise some complex legal and philosophical questions. What does “institutional neutrality” mean in practice? How can universities comply with civil rights laws while also scaling back diversity-focused programming? What responsibility do these institutions have in addressing disparities among the students they serve?
On this episode, we will shed light on how these policy changes are playing out in NC, how students and faculty are responding and what this dismantling of DEI efforts may mean for the future of higher education in the state.
GUESTS:
Davis Cuffe, editor-in-chief at Niner Times
Osamudia James, Henry P. Brandis Distinguished Professor of Law at UNC School of Law
Matt Hartman, higher education reporter for The Assembly and co-anchor of their weekly higher education newsletter, The Quad
