How the UNC System worked to get universities’ Pride posts removed
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- UNC Greensboro and UNC-Chapel Hill deleted Pride Month posts after UNC System direction.
- Schools cited the UNC System’s Equality Policy as the reason for deletions.
- Board member Woody White said he helped refine the Equality Policy and praised removals.
Earlier this month, two schools in the UNC System posted on social media in celebration of Pride Month.
Each post was accompanied by rainbow graphics.
UNC-Chapel Hill’s athletic department shared the message “The Tar Heels are for everyone.” At UNC Greensboro, multiple departments, including athletics, alumni relations, and first year resources, posted for Pride Month.
The News & Observer obtained emails sent between UNC Greensboro administrators that reveal the reason for the controversial deletions. UNC-Chapel Hill did not respond to a similar records request in time for publication.
“We are being directed, via the UNC System office, to not post in reference to Pride Month,” reads a June 4 email from Morgan Glover, director of social media strategy at UNC Greensboro. “If you have posted something on university channels, you will need to delete it.”
Both schools cited compliance with the UNC System’s Equality Policy, which requires “institutional neutrality,” as the reason for the posts’ prompt removal. Under the policy — which replaced policies mandating diversity, equity, and inclusion practices — schools are instructed to avoid taking positions on matters of “social policy” or “political controversies of the day.”
BOG member celebrates Pride posts’ removal
Woody White, a Wilmington lawyer and member of the Board of Governors, took to social media to celebrate the removal of the Pride posts — and describe the work it took.
“It took 48 hours, and a lot of heavy lifting to get it done, but it happened,” White wrote on LinkedIn of the deletions.
White says in his post that he was instrumental in refining the language of the Equality Policy, which says is a safeguard against impressionable young people becoming “indoctrinated or force-fed ideology” in college, as it privileges “no one voice above any other.”
Campuses must celebrate each holiday or observance with equal attention under the Equality Policy, or so the logic of institutional neutrality goes. In addition to LGBTQ+ Pride Month, North Carolina’s governor, Josh Stein, declared June Deaf-Blind Awareness Month, Safety Awareness Month, Anti-Lynching Awareness Month, Reunification Month, National Homeownership Month, Fatherhood Awareness Month, and Whole Child Health and Well-Being Month.
Celebrate observances by not celebrating?
The simplest way to celebrate all these observances equally might be not to celebrate them at all. The System’s guidance on the policy advises campuses to “reject the premise that making a public statement is the only way to support a particular group of students.”
“We did this because we believe that campuses which protect all speech, free expression and thought diversity — without favor — are best positioned to protect our democratic right of civil discourse and debate, as compared to other Universities that actively push political and ideological narratives on their students,” White wrote on LinkedIn. “... We expected all Chancellors to fully implement the policy, vertically, throughout their campuses. Some have done a better job than others, as evidenced by this week’s postings and deletions.”
Later this summer, each campus will have to file a report to the Board of Governors regarding their compliance with the Equality Policy. Those will be reviewed by the Committee on University Governance at the Board’s September meeting. Reports from 2024 and 2025 are publicly available online.
