Student Body President Christopher Everett used part of his remarks during Thursday’s full board meeting to “advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion” and encouraged the board and others to not shy away from talking about the issue.

“Regardless of each of our individual definitions of diversity, I believe our No. 1 priority as a university should be to ensure that all students feel like they belong at Carolina,” Everett said. “This is our greatest responsibility.”

How would banning DEI impact UNC?

Asked by The N&O Thursday about whether DEI efforts have value at the university, UNC interim Chancellor Lee Roberts said he sees “a value of diversity across multiple dimensions.”

“Not just diversity itself,” Roberts said, “but also making sure that once people earn a spot at the school, that they feel as though they’re welcomed here, as though they belong.”

Roberts said administrators would work to answer trustees’ questions about DEI and related spending at the university.

The university employs a chief diversity officer and operates an Office of Diversity and Inclusion, which has a stated mission “to celebrate all members of the Carolina community, to broaden our collective understanding, and foster a sense of belonging by uplifting diverse identities, cultures, experiences, and perspectives.”

UNC Chief Financial Officer Nate Knuffman told the board Wednesday that a recent university report to the UNC System showed that UNC’s spending on employees who spend more than half of their time on DEI efforts was “a small fraction of the university overall spending on personnel.”

Some university DEI efforts have already been phased out, despite there being no formal, outright ban on the framework.

A UNC System ban on “compelled speech” prohibits university employers and admissions officials from asking applicants about their personal or political beliefs.

That led to a ban on DEI statements in hiring at UNC-Chapel Hill. Guidance from the university’s Office of Human Resources tells hiring managers to “avoid any required or supplemental questions that solicit or require the applicant to attest to viewpoints or beliefs,” including “a DEI statement.”

As a result of the ban, the UNC School of Medicine last year revised its faculty appointment, promotion and tenure processes to remove requirements for applicants to describe their contributions to aspects of the school’s mission, including teaching, research, professional service and DEI.

The state legislature enacted its own ban on compelled speech in state government workplaces last summer. That law also lists 13 concepts, mostly related to race and gender, that are banned from being taught or promoted in state workplaces.

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