Following the money: University moves millions amid DEI program cuts

The University’s annual equality certification and report details the reallocation of roughly $5.39 million previously designated for diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

Changes came after the UNC System Board of Governors repealed a system-wide DEI policy in May. The University System is shifting to a revised policy emphasizing a commitment to equality. A report detailing the impact of the repeal was released at a Sept. 11 BOG committee meeting. 

Media Relations said in an email statement that Chancellor Lee Roberts and Provost Christopher Clemens tasked a group organized by Vice Provost Leah Cox with "developing a compliant plan that upholds the University’s commitment to being a place where all can thrive in their working and learning environments."

In a Q&A session, Cox told The Daily Tar Heel that administration worked with every school, every dean and Clemens to come up with a plan for reallocating funding to comply with the new policy.

“They were making decisions about how to reallocate some of those funds, redirect some of those positions, change the scope of some of the positions – which sometimes may mean we're going to change some programs, or we no longer need some of those things,” she said. 

Here’s where the approved funds are going: 

Central Administration

$808,145 previously allocated for UNC's Diversity and Inclusion Office was realigned to various University positions. The total D&I office budget was valued at nearly $1.8 million, and remaining funds will be redirected throughout central administration.

Those leftover funds will be divided between reassigning staff, funding new positions and supporting student leadership. New roles include a business service coordinator for the Center of Faculty Excellence, an employee management relations role in the Office of Faculty Affairs and a new Transformational Manager to support “student success.”

According to the guidance about the new policy from the UNC System Division of Legal Affairs, student success is a central focus.

As mentioned in the 2022-27 University of North Carolina Strategic Plan, student success “includes the development of competencies such as critical and creative thinking, lifelong learning, technology proficiency, resilience, effective communication, flexibility, and collaboration, among others. It also pertains to the timely acquisition of a degree.”

UNC system President Peter Hans said during media availability at the Sep. 12 BOG meeting that student success is for students of all backgrounds and all beliefs. He said with this, they believe that they will meet the students where they are at and support them in a multitude of ways. 

Individual Schools

Programs including the Kenan-Flagler Business School, Eshelman School of Pharmacy and School of Social Work will reallocate funding that was previously designated for their individual DEI budgets. 

The School of Medicine will receive approximately $2.4 million — about 44 percent of the total funding reallocated. The money previously covered expenses at the Office of Inclusive Excellence and Community Engagement, the Office of Rural Initiatives and the Office of Scholastic Enrichment and Equity.

Approximately $1.56 million are reallocated to realigned positions in the Office of Medical Student Education or the Office of Faculty Affairs and Leadership Development within the school. The use of remaining funds wasn’t specified in the University report.

Other schools, including the School of Education and School of Information and Library Science, received funds formerly dedicated for partial staff positions that have been vacant since Aug. 12, 2023. The School of Education will use their funding to hire new faculty, while the School for Information and Library Science is redirecting funds to be used in ways that have yet to be determined, according to the University report.

Renaming and Refocusing

The University’s 2023-24 all-funds budget book details a $4.2 billion operating budget for its last fiscal year – the DEI budget represents approximately 0.13 percent of that.

While some University schools, such as Kenan-Flagler, are completely closing their individual DEI offices, others, like the Hussman School for Journalism and Media, are realigning their pre-existing efforts. 

The Hussman School’s Access, Belonging, Inclusion, Diversity and Equity Committee is being changed to the Access, Belonging, Inclusion, Dignity, and Excellence Committee. The University report stated that the committee will review its charter documents, guiding principles, tasks and responsibilities to align with current policy.

Hussman isn’t the only school to rename, rather than eliminate, their DEI program. The School of Law’s DEI Committee was renamed the Committee on Community.

In a Sept. 13 faculty council meeting, Provost Clemens said the University has not placed any prohibitions on using the word diversity.

“This should not restrain you from imagining how you make this a more welcoming place,” he said to the Council. “That’s what I mean when I say 'do the imaginative work.' We haven’t locked down some words. That’s Orwellian, and that’s not what we mean.”

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