UNC Board removes Diversity & Inclusion funding from next year's budget; Move $2.3M to Public Safety

UNC-Chapel Hill's Board of Trustees on Monday approved the transfer of $2.3 million in diversity and inclusion spending to public safety priorities in the 2024-25 budget. The trustees held a special meeting Monday morning. The board is scheduled to hold its regular meeting Wednesday and Thursday. The UNC System Board of Governors is expected to vote next week to eliminate diversity goals and jobs at member institutions, including UNC-Chapel Hill. A Board of Governors committee last month approved a complete rewrite of the system's existing diversity, equity and inclusion policy.
The move is likely to create job losses at the Chapel Hill campus, said trustee Dave Boliek.
"Clearly the Board of Governors has signaled by their policy and you had comments from legislative leaders that they're looking toward leadership at the university level," Boliek, a former chairman of the Board of Trustees, said in an interview. "We're providing it. We're leading."
The $2.3 million is money from state-appropriated dollars and trust fund money that were "immediately identified," Boliek said. The system office identified that money, he said. The university's operating budget in 2023-24 was $4.2 billion.
The new Board of Governors policy calls for each institution to certify by Sept. 1 that it "fully complies with the university's commitment to institutional neutrality and nondiscrimination."
It does away with current policy that establishes "system-wide diversity and inclusion metrics and goals" and created a "UNC System diversity and inclusion council." At the meeting, Boliek said: "I think that DEI is divisive. I don't think it's productive. I don't think it gives a return on investment to taxpayers and to the institution itself."
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[@bdahl4002]

First smart thing I’ve heard for a college in a while. Safety first.

[@MrWOLFPACK1974]

Everything should be based on merit......glad this is gone.

[@ensontaylor4836]

thank you protesters! you accomplished your goal

[@dougm2250]

DEI= Didn`t earn it.

[@michaeln.2383]

There's no more money to waste on nonsense.

[@ultramagapatriot5874]

WOOHOO!! BRAVO!! NEVER SHOULD HAVE ALLOWED IT TO BEGIN WITH BECAUSE THIS PART OF THE PROBLEM

[@ninakosi7979]

That’s using common sense…no DEI, only merits. One would be proud to be hired knowing that they earned it.

[@debbiereynolds7759]

Taxpayer funded discrimination being a career is so wild. These are the big minds of higher education?

[@TheMomseloc]

I "LIKE" this 2.3 Million times!

[@falknerdknight4171]

Dei should be charged for racism.

[@catherinebourdon8258]

Based on what we have seen, I don't think DEI is unproductive. It produced results favorable to those operating a racket! The incentives were lucrative, and they created a snowballing problem-activity for the many in order to profit the few.

[@LadieKadie]

🥱 Your cries will now fall on deaf ears. You’ve earned that much.

[@rig2106]

Why wait til next year? Do It Now!

[@deebee4575]

The money is already spent.

[@falknerdknight4171]

Only the beginning

[@MoneyMoney-ke7fl]

Good ! This will make way less young people want to go to college and end this tuition scam.

[@gounch.1186]

exactly. f this fake illusion system.

[@gounch.1186]

exactly screw this illusion system. the internet will destroy them.

[@MoneyMoney-ke7fl]

@@gounch.1186 They think they're "showing those punk kids what's up" not realizing they're doing what the protest intended which was to shake the system. Getting rid of inclusion programs shows they fear diversity. Plus they just pissed off the generation of professionals. Get ready for change from within 🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸

[@saed-sq1kw]

LIES

[@bradspringer2372]

So if a black employee complains to HR that the DEI training singles him out, therefore making him feel uncomfortable, what would that company do?

[@Planetholmes]

Bye-bye DEI! Long live merit and common sense.