For the past year, the discussion of DEI within UNC System institutions has been a major topic of conversation. Rumors of removal circulated all last year, until Wednesday when the Board of Governors announced 47 DEI positions at UNC-Chapel Hill have been eliminated or realigned.
Replacing the previous protocol, the new policy is titled “Equality Within the University of North Carolina.” While the words equity and equality may sound similar, they are not interchangeable.
Those who have taken a humanities or social science course may be familiar with a specific image explaining the difference between equality and equity. The left half of the image, representing equality, shows three people of different heights all standing on their own equally-sized box behind a fence, but only one of them is tall enough to be able to see the baseball game on the other side. On the right half, representing equity, one person has no box and is able to see over the fence, the second stands on one box, and the third and shortest person is given two so that all three can now see over the fence.
This image attempts to explain that when everyone is given the same tools despite different needs, there will be different outcomes for each person, but when we address the specific needs of individuals, we can establish a level playing field.
The new policy describes diversity as the ways individuals vary including backgrounds, beliefs, abilities, cultures and more that distinguish people from one another. Yet the policy does not address the ways these differences impact individual’s abilities to succeed when they are given the exact same opportunities.
In an ideal world, every person would be treated equally, which would mean that giving everyone the same opportunities would only create more equality. However, we live in a world filled with inequality where people are discriminated against based on immutable characteristics, where there is systemic oppression that makes even getting to higher education a difficult feat and where some voices and concerns are prioritized over others.
The BOG's new policy ignores the reality of the world we live in and the history and lived experiences that make it more difficult for some to succeed over others. Rather than alleviating disparities, this policy will only further perpetuate them as well as disadvantages faced by members of the University community.
We should instead focus on striving toward more equal achievement outcomes across different groups through metrics included in the previous policy: academic achievement gaps, graduation rates, recruitment and retention of students, faculty and staff are all covered in this.
Equality is not a bad or outdated word that should be replaced with equity; it is actually something we should strive for. However, we should all be mindful of the meaning and contexts of the words we hear and use. There is a distinct difference between a policy focused on reaching equal outcomes between groups and a policy focused on applying equal solutions to complex and varied needs across groups. Don't let the BOG’s use of the word fool you into thinking the elimination of DEI isn’t a huge step back when it comes to addressing inequality in our world and at our university.
