Blaine’s comments and the broader discussion came as the Board of Trustees’ budget and finance committee was discussing the process the university will use to draft and approve its budget for the upcoming fiscal year. He urged university staff to be prepared for a possible ban on DEI spending and how that could affect various entities at the university.

“I think rather than us be caught flat-footed, I would suggest that we work to develop a contingency plan for that expectation,” Blaine said.

Blaine suggested that if the university is no longer able to spend money on DEI, that it should consider ways the money could be used to meet the university’s other priorities, such as funding graduate-student stipends or improving graduation rates.

Trustee Marty Kotis agreed with Blaine, saying that “the sentiment for a lot of folks around the state is that DEI is causing more divisiveness than coherence at the university level.”

“And so I think it is a proper target to consider for reallocation of those funds to better uses,” Kotis said.

Boliek, who said he believes DEI has caused “distrust” in higher education, agreed “100%” with Blaine’s remarks about “contingency planning and taking a look at where we have allocated funds in our budget to DEI efforts.”

“If there is a change in policy that funds it, we should be prepared,” Boliek said.

Polls show a widening gap in how people view higher education based on their party affiliation, with Republicans generally having more negative perceptions of universities than their Democratic counterparts. A July Gallup poll showed confidence had dropped considerably overall.

Trustee Ralph Meekins said the board should not have been discussing a yet-to-be-seen policy, and that the board should wait for guidance or policies to come down from the UNC System Board of Governors or the legislature on the issue.

“Let’s see where the policy goes before we start addressing it ourselves,” Meekins urged his fellow board members.

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