AIM’s North Carolina DEI investigations keep making headlines
July 24, 2025
The University of North Carolina System’s Board of Governors has directed the board of trustees at each campus to form a new subcommittee that will scrutinize compliance with diversity, equity, and inclusion policies.
In a memorandum dated June 17, which was posted on a UNC System website but not announced publicly, board chair Wendy Murphy and the chair of the BOG’s committee on university governance, Alex Mitchell, wrote that these campus-level committees will assess whether schools are in alignment with the system’s 2024 “equality policy.” That policy repealed previous DEI guidelines and required administrators to stay neutral on political controversies.
Last September, campuses reported that the new equality policy led them to eliminate DEI offices and dozens of jobs, while another 131 positions were changed. In total, campuses across the UNC System reported redirecting $16 million from former DEI programs to “student success” and “wellbeing” efforts.
But Murphy and Mitchell’s memo indicated that they feel campuses have more work to do to eliminate DEI, calling the results from last September an “initial effort.” They wrote that campuses must show a “meaningful verification that those realignments succeeded” in compliance reports that are due to the Board of Governors on September 1. The Board of Governors oversees the 17-campus UNC System, while boards of trustees oversee individual institutions.