UNC System boards reviewing anti-DEI compliance ahead of reporting deadline
Welcome to Dean’s List, a higher education newsletter from The News & Observer and me, Korie Dean.
It’s been nearly a year since UNC System campuses first reported how they were complying with the system’s repeal of diversity, equity and inclusion. Now, per the so-called “equality policy” that replaced the DEI mandates, it’s time for another round of reporting.
By Sept. 1 of each year, the policy requires, campus leaders must submit reports to the Board of Governors certifying their school “fully complies with the University’s commitment to institutional neutrality and nondiscrimination” and detailing actions they’ve taken “to achieve compliance” — including jobs that have been eliminated or restructured to remove their ties to DEI.
Last year, the initial implementation of the policy resulted in 59 DEI-related jobs being eliminated, while 131 were “realigned.”
But this year, there’s another layer to campuses’ compliance.
In a June 17 memo, Board of Governors Chair Wendy Murphy and member Alex Mitchell directed each campus-level Board of Trustees to form subcommittees that would receive briefings — some open to the public, some not — about their schools’ compliance and review the annual reports before submitting them to the Board of Governors. (The Assembly first reported on the memo, which was posted to the UNC System website but not publicly announced.)
This week, several trustee boards are meeting to take up the task.
This week’s newsletter includes more about the upcoming compliance deadline and the new role trustees are playing in the process this year.
Also included:
- A look at the major increases in universities’ federal lobbying expenditures this year;
- A report about one of UNC’s newest — and most recognizable — professors;
- and more.
Trustees reviewing anti-DEI compliance
In their memo to trustees, Murphy and Mitchell outlined several policies the Board of Governors has enacted in recent years “to ensure protection of the equality of all persons and their respective viewpoints.” Those included:
- A ban on “compelled speech,” enacted in 2023, which did not explicitly target diversity efforts but that in its practical applications led to the end of DEI statements in faculty hiring and promotions;
- Adopting the equality policy last year, which repealed previous mandates for DEI-related jobs and goals across the system;
- and banning schools earlier this year from requiring students to take DEI-related courses, a move enacted in response to one of President Donald Trump’s executive orders.
But the policies themselves aren’t enough, Murphy and Mitchell indicated, writing that “the effectiveness of any policy depends on its implementation” and “effective implementation requires strong leadership and ongoing oversight.”
Referring to last year’s equality-policy compliance reports as an “initial effort,” Murphy and Mitchell wrote that this year’s certifications “will require a meaningful verification that those realignments succeeded, and each board of trustees has a collective role to play in that verification.”
Each trustee chair was required to form a committee of five members, approved by system President Peter Hans, to:
- Receive open-session briefings from their chancellor regarding “campus operations and realigned offices,” including “an explanation of the duties of any realigned positions with vague titles;”
- Receive closed-session briefings from the chancellor and the university’s lawyers “on the performance of relevant campus personnel” whose responsibilities were restructured under the equality policy or whose positions within student affairs are “vague or unclear;”
- Receive a report on any changes the university has made to its official materials, such as mission statements;
- and review the university’s 2025 compliance report before submitting it to the Board of Governors.
“The work of your subcommittees will contribute meaningfully to our shared goals to affirm equality, institutional neutrality, free expression, and academic freedom,” the memo read.
As the Sept. 1 deadline nears, several trustee boards are meeting this week, including:
- UNC-Chapel Hill’s, which meets Tuesday at 10 a.m.
- NC Central University’s, which meets Tuesday at 3 p.m.
- East Carolina University’s, which meets Wednesday at 3 p.m.
And others, like Appalachian State University, have already met.
Flashback: Murphy previously admonished some campuses for their compliance efforts, saying at a February Board of Governors meeting that “it appears that campuses are still struggling with full implementation” of the equality policy and other “important directives.”
And worth noting: While Murphy and Mitchell’s directions to campuses represent a formal effort to continue the crackdown on DEI across the system and provide documentation of concrete changes universities are making, much of this work has been ongoing. For instance, schools like UNC Charlotte and NC State University have already scrubbed references to DEI from their university mission and vision statements and strategic plans — efforts that ramped up earlier this year after Trump took office.
ICYMI: Catch up on these headlines
You probably don’t need me to tell you that it’s a busy and turbulent time for higher ed. University lobbyists sure don’t.
Amid the flurry of activity in Washington, North Carolina’s universities aren’t sitting on the sidelines. That’s according to congressional lobbying reports for the first half of 2025, which show significant increases from previous years in spending on advocacy efforts at the state’s colleges and universities.
Per the reports:
- UNC more than quintupled its spending in the first half of this year compared to the same period last year;
- Duke University increased its spending by nearly 92% compared to the first part of last year;
- Davidson College hired a lobbyist for the first time on record;
- and UNC Charlotte is using a lobbyist for the first time in a decade.
And it’s not just the university’s in-house lobbyists who are getting in on the efforts. UNC and Duke are using outside lobbying firms to assist in their advocacy efforts, including one that counts former Republican Sen. Richard Burr among its lobbyists.
Read more about these lobbying trends in stories from me and The N&O’s Kyle Ingram:
- NC universities ramp up spending on lobbying as Trump targets higher education
- How much are NC universities spending on DC lobbying? See the money in 5 charts
Now, here’s a fun one.
Some UNC students were “starstruck” on the first day of classes last week. That’s because Tar Heel basketball great Tyler Hansbrough was there to greet them — not simply as an alumnus or guest speaker, but as a professor.
Hansbrough, who led the Heels to a national championship in 2009 and was the consensus national player of the year in 2007-08, is co-teaching MEJO 377: Sport Communication with professor Livis Freeman at the Hussman School of Journalism and Media this fall.
“You know, this is a new experience for me, and I want to help the kids,” Hansbrough told The N&O’s Shelby Swanson after class. “This place is very prestigious academically, so I want to add a lot of value.”
Read Shelby’s full story: Tyler Hansbrough dunked, scored, won for UNC basketball. Why he’s back in class
Higher ed news I’m reading
- UNC Chancellor Lee Roberts and interim Provost Jim Dean directed university facilities staff to cover up a pro-Palestinian mural, created by students in a studio art class last year, without consulting or informing faculty in the art department, The Daily Tar Heel reports.
- The University of Texas System Board of Regents voted to disband campus faculty senates, a move to comply with a state law that gave university leaders control over faculty governing bodies, Inside Higher Ed reports.
- An announcement that Duke’s Department of Slavic & Eurasian Studies has been eliminated as a result of the university’s buyouts and layoffs isn’t true, but the department has no staff left and is now being led by someone in another area, Indy Week reports.
See you next time
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