Fired NC State Pride Center leader speaks out, and students rally around him
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- NC State fired Pride Center assistant director after an group posted an undercover video.
- NC State did not ask Edwards for his side or request unedited footage, he said.
- Students rally in support of Edwards, saying the firing sets a troubling precedent.
When the UNC System repealed its commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion in 2024, NC State Pride Center’s assistant director, Jae Edwards, was relieved to learn the work of the center could go on.
Naturally, the community of LGBTQ+ students that the center serves had questions about what the new policies would mean for the on-campus resource. But during one particular conversation with a student, Edwards started to feel a sense of unease.
Someone who identified herself as a new transfer student came to talk to Edwards about how he was managing the center’s programming in light of the mandate to excise the influence of DEI. Students don’t ask these kinds of questions, he thought. He knew something was up.
Edwards immediately reported the interaction to his supervisor.
A year later, he would find out his suspicion was well-founded. Not only was she not a transfer student at all, she was secretly recording the conversation.
She was working for a group called Accuracy in Media, or AIM, which posted snippets of the conversation online last month, saying they proved Edwards had violated university policies around DEI. The evidence was comments like this one: “We’re still able to do the things that we want to do, have these events and programs. We have to be a little more careful.”
The day after the video was uploaded, NC State fired Edwards.
AIM has posted similar videos from universities across North Carolina and in other states. The group describes itself as using “investigative journalism and citizen-led activism to expose government corruption, public policy failures, and radical activists.”
Edwards is the fourth UNC System employee to lose their job as a result of Accuracy in Media’s work.
In his firing, NC State never asked Edwards for his side of the story, he said in an interview with The News & Observer. Weeks before his firing, Edwards was presented with the Pride of the Wolfpack award, which the university website says “recognizes individuals who demonstrate university values.” He was left feeling betrayed by the same institution he had given so much to.
“I asked if there was a reason I was being terminated, and whether I broke any policy,” Edwards told The N&O. “They just told me North Carolina is an at-will state, and they deemed my position no longer necessary for the university.”
Undercover video
Edwards says the video is highly edited. The conversation is overlaid with music and captions, and the questions asked by the recorder are edited out.
According to Edwards, NC State did not contact AIM before firing Edwards, nor did they ask the group for an unedited version of the video. NC State declined to confirm or deny Edwards’ version of events when asked about it by The N&O.
At the time of his firing, the video had around 200 views, Edwards said.
“I know why they didn’t show the entire footage,” Edwards said. “It’s because I said things like ‘all students are welcome here’ ... I did nothing wrong, and I do not regret any word that I said.”
Edwards said the undercover AIM representative met with leaders from other student success centers on campus, like the Women’s Center and the Multicultural Student Affairs Center. Any videos that exist of those conversations have not yet been released.
Struggling after firing
In the month since his firing, Edwards has dealt with a whirlwind of emotional and practical struggles.
“I miss my students,” Edwards said. “It’s just shocking. One day you have a job, the next day your students are helping you pack up your office and put it in your car. That is just a very sad thing to do. Not everyone has the privilege to love their job. I very much loved my job and the impact I was able to make.”
Edwards describes the struggle trying to stay off social media comment sections, ignoring people who are saying he should be thrown in jail or that he’s a “DEI hire.”
“But it still hurts,” Edwards said. “I don’t feel as fulfilled anymore, and the world is already a dumpster fire. It’s not surprising to me, or lost on me, that this happened to a Black, queer person.”
The feeling of betrayal is most acute for Edwards when he thinks about how closely he says he followed university policy following the repeal of the UNC System’s commitment to DEI. Every move made by Edwards and the Pride Center was checked and double-checked by the university’s legal department, Edwards said.
“I kind of compare it to being in a toxic relationship,” he said. “You stay in it to support the students, but you’re putting up with things you would normally not put up with.”
Edwards also is concerned about the example his firing set for students.
“A big part of a college education is career readiness, of showing how you should be treated in a workplace after you graduate,” he said. “This is not the example that NC State should be setting.”
Students rallied for Edwards’ reinstatement at NC State Wednesday evening. Attendees included undergraduates, graduate students, faculty and staff, forming a group of about 65. They called on Chancellor Kevin Howell to reverse Edwards’ firing. Students spoke through tears about what Edwards meant to them. NC State employees, from professors to bus drivers, shared their anxiety and concern about what it means that Edwards was fired, in their view, without a proper investigation.
Students said that nothing he said in the video violated university policy, as far as they can see.
Mickey Brigham, a 26-year-old graduate student in the College of Natural Resources, said the lack of communication from NC State has been troubling for him.
“The campus administration has not been transparent at all in providing their reasoning behind his firing,” Brigham said. “Nothing [Edwards] said was in violation of NC State’s policy or the UNC System Policy. It was a scare tactic that this right wing media organization used, and unfortunately, the NC State administration just let them. ... Students and faculty and workers across the campus see this as a really bad pattern to be set.”
Aiden Ly, an 18-year-old political science major, agreed.
“[AIM] can scare institutions, but they ain’t gonna scare us,” Ly said. “These right-wing groups want to take away anyone that could protect any students that are minorities and make us feel like we don’t got a place ... It may seem grim if you take away the people that represent us, but we’re always going to organize and find our own way to still be together, even if you take away some key figures like Jae Edwards.”
Edwards has so far raised $12,761 on GoFundMe to support him through this period of unemployment.
Citing an inability to comment on personnel matters, NC State declined to answer questions.
This story was originally published March 11, 2026 at 6:32 PM.
