Less than a week after its surprise inclusion at a University of North Carolina Board of Governors meeting, faculty and students across the system are reacting with confusion and anger at a policy that seeks to eliminate DEI on campuses.

“We are stunned at the speed, the secrecy and the exclusion,” said Wade Maki, the head of the UNC System’s Faculty Assembly and a professor at UNC-Greensboro. “Very few people in the UNC System seemed to know this was coming. We had no testimony, no questions, no discussions and now that it’s been put on the consent agenda, there’s not likely to be any.”

Wade Maki, in his office on campus at UNC Greensboro Friday, Jan. 27, 2023 in Greensboro, N.C. Maki is in his first year as UNC FacultyAssembly Chair. The University of North Carolina Greensboro is facing the highest budget cuts in the UNC System due to a loss in student enrollment.
Lynn Hey

Wade Maki, in his office on campus at UNC Greensboro Friday, Jan. 27, 2023 in Greensboro, N.C. Maki is in his first year as UNC Facility Assembly Chair.
Maki and a group of faculty chairs are set to meet with UNC System administration on Thursday to discuss the policy. It is unclear if UNC System president Peter Hans will attend the meeting.

The new initiative will undo a 2019 policy that required all UNC System universities to have on-campus diversity, equity and inclusion officers and/or staff. Last week, the Committee on University Governance voted unanimously to replace it with a policy that pushes “institutional neutrality,” and directs chancellors to reduce “force and spending” for DEI efforts, as well as change job titles and descriptions.

The vote was shrouded in secrecy. It was added to the board’s agenda about 24 hours before the committee met and was voted on in less than four minutes with no discussion from board members.

After the meeting, the UNC System did not make anyone available to WUNC to comment on the record about the policy or the process by which it was presented and voted on.

The only comments from board members have been written statements from UNC System leaders and a BOG member op-ed posted by a conservative-leaning publication.

The repeal and replacement of the 2019 policy is in limbo until the full Board of Governors votes on it next month. That vote is currently scheduled to take place on May 23 at the System Office in Raleigh.

Ahead of this vote, campus leaders are organizing multiple efforts to share their concerns.

On Thursday, the UNC Faculty Assembly will hold a regular meeting with System Office administration. The group will include senior leadership, and Maki said he has “every expectation” that UNC System President Peter Hans will be there as well.

The meeting is not open to the public, but faculty assembly leaders plan to use this time to share campus community concerns about the BOG’s DEI policy.

Beth Moracco will represent UNC-Chapel Hill. She said that faculty who have commented to her are, for the most part, against the new policy and feel like it’s divisive.

“The other thing I’m hearing is ‘it feels like a big setback, it feels unnecessary, we feel blindsided, it doesn’t feel inclusive and welcoming,’” Moracco said. “There’s a lot of concern and just really negative feedback about the process, because it’s counter to the principles of shared governance. To not even be consulted, or even aware that this was coming, (faculty) really feel blindsided, taken aback and like (it’s) an action that’s not taken in good faith.”