CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The North Carolina General Assembly’s short session is set to begin in less than a month, and there was a fresh sign this week that the state legislature could take up a hot-button issue in higher education: diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI.

At a committee meeting of the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees, board member Jim Blaine — the former chief of staff to Republican Senate leader Phil Berger and a powerful political player in the state — predicted that North Carolina could become one of the next states to eliminate DEI efforts at its public universities.

“It’s my belief that it is likely that the Board of Governors or the state legislature will follow Florida’s path as it relates to DEI this year,” Blaine said.

Florida has dominated much of the national conversation over higher education in recent years, with efforts to ban DEI — among other decisions made by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and state lawmakers — becoming flashpoints.

DeSantis signed legislation defunding DEI programs at public colleges and universities in Florida last year, and the governing board that oversees the state’s university system passed a policy in January to conform with the law. As a result of the law and policy, the University of Florida earlier this month closed its Office of the Chief Diversity Officer, eliminated DEI employee positions and ended DEI-focused contracts with outside vendors.

Several other states have considered, and in some cases passed, similar legislation targeting DEI spending, as well as related issues, such as the use of diversity statements and writing prompts in hiring.

Blaine said he agreed with Florida’s actions on DEI and said North Carolina enacting similar legislation or policies would be “the right decision.”

“I think what I’ve seen, in my opinion, is that DEI creates and exacerbates problems on this campus and doesn’t solve them,” Blaine said. “So I hope that they do move forward in eliminating DEI. I think it’s the right thing to do.”

Though North Carolina has not fully banned DEI, laws and policies passed by lawmakers and some university leaders over the past year-plus — including a ban on “compelled speech” in university hiring and admissions — have already shown similarities to efforts in Florida.

What will NC legislature do?

Blaine told The News & Observer he did not want to comment beyond his remarks Wednesday or provide more information about what leads him to believe a ban might be on the horizon.

Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore’s offices did not respond to requests for comment from The N&O Thursday about whether they are considering a ban on DEI this legislative session.

State Rep. Jon Hardister, a Whitsett Republican who co-chairs the House committee on universities, told The N&O that legislators have talked about DEI legislation “in an abstract manner” but said he was not aware of any bill that had been drafted.

“Several legislators have talked about it casually, but there’s no concrete plan that I’m aware of,” Hardister said. He added that “it certainly wouldn’t surprise” him if the issue comes up in the short session, which begins April 24.

Blaine is a partner at Martin & Blaine, also known as The Differentiators, a political consulting firm he operates with Ray Martin, Berger’s former press secretary.

The pair are considered to be highly connected politically, working in 2020 on the attorney general’s race and a congressional race and with an organization raising money to ensure that Republicans maintain control of the North Carolina House and Senate, The N&O previously reported. For the 2024 elections, campaign finance reports show several statewide GOP candidates have paid Martin & Blaine for work, including UNC trustee Dave Boliek, who is running for state auditor as a Republican.

Blaine also previously served as a consultant and strategic adviser for the UNC System, making $15,000 per month.

In a 2018 News & Observer report, written when Blaine still worked for Berger, he was described by fellow trustee and former Republican nominee for governor Patrick Ballantine as “one of the most powerful people in the state that no one’s ever heard of.”

Redirecting DEI funds

A handful of other trustees on the 15-member board — which consists mostly of conservative-leaning members — agreed with Blaine during a roughly 10-minute discussion of DEI Wednesday, though one member said the board’s discussion was outside its scope of authority. On Thursday, the university’s student body president voiced his support for diversity efforts at the university.

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.

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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