“I think if you are to take an honest look at that history, it presents you with very clear moral obligations,” Posel said. “The fruits of world-class higher education should be accessible to the people that were disadvantaged by that process.”
Aikat said that starting in the 2000s, there were widespread commitments to diversity, and institutions used targeted hiring.
One example at UNC was the Valuing Inclusion To Attain Excellence or VITAE program, which was run out of the Provost's office. The VITAE program, previously known as the targeted hire program, was explicitly designed to attract faculty from underrepresented groups for tenure track positions.
Aikat explained that the murder of George Floyd and the increase in popularity of the Black Lives Matter movement prompted many campuses and corporations to start diversity initiatives by establishing officers and trainings.
On Aug. 1, 2020, former dean of the Hussman School Dean Susan King sent a memo to former Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz analyzing the school’s strengths and weaknesses with regard to structural racism. In the formal address, King called for a renewed commitment to diversity that went beyond the school's previous plans.
A year later, the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications conducted a review of the Hussman School’s performance in its resolution on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and social justice.
It found the school out of compliance and voted to downgrade its accreditation in 2022.
Hiring and compelled speech
Kotis said he came across the letter from King, and it seemed problematic to him because it had an action item to increase staff from underrepresented groups by five percent.
“It appeared that they were outlining how they would choose candidates or bring them in based on criteria other than merit and looking at racial or gender demographics,” Kotis said.
The BOG passed a system-wide ban on compelled speech in February 2023. The policy prevented University representatives from requiring faculty or job applicants to make statements that require attesting to or affirming beliefs about matters of contemporary political debate or social action as part of these processes.
Louis Pérez, professor of history at UNC, said that there was a time when applicants applying for jobs or grants had to write statements on how they are pursuing equity, diversity and inclusion. Perez said that banning compelled speech is a part of the same exclusionary practice as banning DEI, in order to create what is perceived to be leveling the playing field and neutrality.
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“What we are seeing now is a wave of reaction which is part of a larger wave of reaction that’s sweeping the country,” Pérez said.
In March 2023, Kotis sent an email to Preyer taking issue with a question about DEI that the Kenan-Flagler Business School asked on its hiring application for a dean.
The question read “Please describe the steps you have taken to increase diversity, equity and inclusion in your current or recent leadership role. What outcomes were achieved as a result of your efforts?”
In his email, Kotis said the business school claimed it cleared the question with Human Resource, when he raised concerns about it. Kotis told The DTH that the business school had not cleared the question with UNC System Human Resources.
Kotis also raised concerns about aspects of the VITAE program. Kotis later said that problems may arise when a program targets and hires through a program like VITAE.
“I've heard commentary in various searches that candidates' gender or race were mentioned as reasons why someone should be in a certain pool that advances,” Kotis said in one of the 2023 emails. “We need better policies and procedures in place to prevent discrimination and compelled speech.”
Kotis said one of the first motions he brought as a trustee was a nondiscrimination resolution similar to the one the BOT passed on July 28, 2023, which eliminated the consideration of race and ethnicity in hiring. Trustee Perrin Jones proposed an earlier version of the resolution in July.
On June 30, 2023, Leah Cox, formerly the vice provost for equity and inclusion, emailed Provost Chris Clemens that she had left the VITAE program out of her annual D&I report “since we are making some changes.” The following summer, in an email to deans and senior associate academic deans, Clemens announced that the VITAE program would be discontinued because it no longer complied with University policy.
In an email statement, UNC Media Relations said Clemens was referring to the UNC System’s repeal of its DEI policy.
Rhetoric and impact
In February 2024, a coalition of campus groups hosted a lecture by Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist and researcher at New York University. At the event, Haidt said that when you focus on identity, you lose academic excellence, and that the way diversity is implemented now cannot be reconciled with excellence or honesty.
In an email from Doug Monroe to trustees John Preyer, Marty Kotis, Ramsey White and Perrin Jones, Monroe wrote that Haidt being at the event shows “the impact of what they do.”
In response, Jones thanked Monroe for bringing speakers of Haidt’s caliber, and said he is hopeful the organizations that coordinated the event, along with the School for Civic Life and Leadership, will lead the nation in “combating identity politics, DEI and other encroachments on our civil society.”
Posel said positioning DEI as oppositional to academic excellence is dangerous.
“To put those things in opposition to each other, to say that intelligence or academic achievement is somehow incompatible with programs of racial diversity, is to be blind to our historical obligations, and it’s to be offensively dismissive of the things minorities and historically disadvantaged groups bring to our campus,” Posel said.
Kotis said his concerns about DEI are more in the realm of its legality and potential for discrimination. He was particularly focused on the problems with DEI in hiring.
"You're not allowed to discriminate," Kotis said. "There's no allowance for discrimination, especially in hiring. The question with admissions was the only open question out there with [Students for Fair Admissions.]"
Pérez said he didn't see DEI in hiring as discrimination, and rather valued the impact of diversity in faculty.
“I think it's super salutary to have people of diverse all kinds of origins and affiliations and conditions to be in the front of a classroom, up there, teaching students,” Pérez said.
enterprisedesk@dailytarheel.com
Special Projects Managing Editor Aisha Baiocchi contributed to the reporting of this story.
