Western Carolina University closes intercultural affairs office, a year after DEI ban
It’s been more than a year since the UNC System Board of Governors repealed diversity, equity and inclusion requirements for North Carolina’s 16 public universities.
But the schools continue to make changes to their diversity-related programming — even as recently as this month.
On June 12, Western Carolina University Chancellor Kelli Brown announced she would immediately close the university’s Office of Intercultural Affairs, which as recently as last fall had a mission to “connections among individuals from diverse backgrounds and perspectives.”
“We aim to create an environment where differing identities, backgrounds, and viewpoints are affirmed, valued, and celebrated,” the office’s website read in late September.
The announcement came days after a WCU employee was featured in an undercover video by an activist media group purporting to show the university was “pushing” DEI efforts despite the UNC System’s ban.
But in announcing the change, Brown directly tied the move to the UNC System’s “equality policy,” which the Board of Governors approved last year to replace former DEI requirements.
“This decision has been made to provide clarity and consistency in how WCU offers student support services in compliance with the UNC System Policy on Equality within the University of North Carolina,” Brown wrote in a campus message provided by a spokesperson. “WCU is committed to providing equal opportunities for our students, and I am confident that this change will not result in any loss of a robust framework for student support at WCU.”
As system campuses prepare in the coming months to once again report how they are complying with the Board of Governors’ directives, WCU’s move could show that campuses are making even more changes to their diversity programming this year.
Welcome to Dean’s List, a higher education newsletter from The News & Observer and me, Korie Dean.
This week’s edition includes:
- More about the closure of WCU’s Office of Intercultural Affairs;
- A look at the latest anti-DEI undercover video featuring a UNC System campus;
- Some of my colleagues’ recent reporting on higher ed issues;
- and more.
Here we go.
WCU closes intercultural affairs office
Per the new “equality policy” — as it is referred to colloquially on the system’s website and by system officials — campuses are required to annually “describe in substance the actions taken to achieve compliance” with the directive. Those reports are due to system President Peter Hans on Sept. 1 each year.
Across the system, nearly 60 DEI-related positions were eliminated and more than 130 jobs were “realigned” — or purged of their ties to DEI — as a result of the repeal. The policy change also resulted in universities closing their DEI offices or units with similar purposes or names.
Last year, WCU’s report showed that it had eliminated the school’s vacant chief diversity officer position and eliminated its Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity Programs.
The university last year also realigned three DEI-related positions, in the now-closed Office of Intercultural Affairs, to instead focus on equality and student success. With the closing of the Office of Intercultural Affairs, those jobs were eliminated. Spokesperson Julia Duvall said in an email those positions were “vacant for some time, and recruitment to those positions has been challenging.”
Two additional jobs, a permanent position and a graduate assistant position, were relocated to the Division of Student Success, Duvall added.
“While three vacant ICA positions will be eliminated, WCU remains committed to fostering an inclusive environment and ensuring all students have access to meaningful support,” Duvall said.
When I spoke to UNC System Faculty Assembly Chair Wade Maki recently about the undercover videos featuring WCU and a host of other universities, he noted that campuses “have made significant changes” — which, he believes, will be further reflected in this year’s compliance reports.
“Our universities are getting ready to explain that in the next round of reporting on this,” he said.
Want to see last year’s compliance reports? They’re available for all 17 campuses on the UNC System website.
UNCW in latest undercover anti-DEI video
In related news, UNC Wilmington is the latest school to be featured in an undercover video from Accuracy in Media, the activist group mentioned above, that attempts to show the university is not complying with the UNC System’s DEI repeal.
Two university employees were recorded discussing UNCW’s implementation of the repeal and subsequent changes to staffing across campus, with one saying officials are “trying to be a little sneaky ... with certain things” related to DEI.
The employees then discussed the university’s annual compliance report that it submitted to the system Board of Governors last year, noting that UNCW “didn’t have to fire anybody” under the board’s directives. Per the report, 13 employees were reassigned to other roles at the university — changes that were expressly permitted in the “equality policy.”
Accuracy in Media — which claims to use “investigative journalism and citizen-led activism to expose government corruption, public policy failures, and radical activists” — has now released four videos of undercover interviews on UNC System campuses, with previous videos at UNC Charlotte, UNC Asheville and Western Carolina University.
At UNC Charlotte and Asheville, administrators featured in the videos are “no longer employed” at those campuses. The administrator featured in WCU’s video retired in mid-April, per a spokesperson.
At UNCW, the video is still under review.
“UNCW is aware of a video alleging regulatory noncompliance by university personnel. We take such matters seriously, the employees’ actions are under review, and the leadership team is taking immediate action to look into these matters further,” spokesperson Sydney Bouchelle said in a statement. “We will provide an appropriate and timely response once we have more information.”
ICYMI: Catch up on these headlines
More North Carolina researchers could soon see their federal grants restored, my N&O colleagues Brian Gordon and Amber Hazzard report.
That’s after a federal judge ruled last week that the Trump administration had illegally cut hundreds grants from the National Institutes of Health that were linked to diversity, equity and inclusion and similar topics.
But many researchers are still waiting for official word that their funding will be reinstated.
“We’re proceeding as if the grant is going to return,” UNC Charlotte professor Annelise Mennicke said. “We’re also preparing for the reality where nothing will change.”
The NIH is the world’s largest public funder of biomedical research. Last year, North Carolina institutions received almost $2 billion in total NIH funding, more than half of which went to either Duke University or UNC-Chapel Hill.
For more, read the full story: UNC, Duke researchers await grant reinstatement after judge halts more NIH cuts
Where did Greenville-based YouTuber MrBeast go to college?
Google that, or consult any number of reports about the online personality, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, and you’re likely to conclude that MrBeast attended East Carolina University. That’s even what Donaldson’s own lawyers wrote in a lawsuit filed in April.
But as The N&O’s Brian Gordon reports, that’s not actually the case. (And remember when ECU announced an “exclusive educational partnership” with MrBeast? Brian has an update on that too.)
For more, read Brian’s full Open Source newsletter: Which NC college did MrBeast actually briefly attend? And why it kind of matters
Higher ed news I’m reading
- The State Department is resuming interviews for international student visas, but is requiring all applicants to set their social media to “public” to be scrutinized for “hostile attitudes” to the U.S., The Washington Post reports.
- Alpha Tau Omega, UNC-Chapel Hill’s longest active fraternity, is no longer recognized as a campus student organization after the national ATO board revoked the chapter’s charter, citing issues related to alcohol and “foolish schemes,” The Daily Tar Heel reports.
See you next time
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