The University of North Carolina System’s Board of Governors (BOG) announced that it is slashing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) positions and programs.
More than $5 million dollars will be redirected.
“As we all know, UNC Chapel Hill typifies our larger campuses’ responses,” Andrew Tripp, the BOG’s Senior Vice President and General Counsel in the Office of Legal Affairs said. “It’s required. Its compliance is required, eliminating dozens of positions.”
Since May, 20 DEI positions were eliminated and 27 were “realigned” at the University of North Carolina, according to The Daily Tar Heel.
Across the entire UNC system, 59 DEI positions were eliminated and 131 were realigned, saving schools $17 million.
Some of the eliminated positions included those within the School of Education, School of Information and Library Sciences, the School of Medicine, the Adams School of Dentistry, the Gillings School of Global Public Health, and the Eshelman School of Pharmacy.
“Realigned” positions now work to support professional development rather than DEI initiatives.
The move follows the board at UNC-Chapel Hill voting in May to redirect DEI funding to campus police.
Marty Kotis, vice chair of the board’s budget and finance committee said at the time that DEI in a “lot of people’s minds is divisiveness, exclusion, and indoctrination. We need more unity and togetherness, more dialogue, more diversity of thought.”
