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Whac-a, Meet Mole. In North Carolina, as elsewhere, anti-DEI reformers can’t keep up with the faculty and staff.
James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal ^ | August 11, 2025 | Graham Hillard

Posted on 08/11/2025 2:27:48 PM PDT by karpov

Some years ago, I saw in a friend’s kitchen a sign meant to place the house’s terms of engagement beyond dispute: “My dogs live here. The rest of you are just visiting.” Little did I know then that a bit of mass-produced kitsch could explain the higher-ed reformer’s central dilemma.

Consider this year’s attempt by the UNC System to bring its schools in line with Trump Administration anti-DEI guidance. As recent events make clear, that effort may fail precisely because the public’s representatives cannot possibly turn over every campus rock or smoke out every defiant faculty member. Why not? As my friend’s sign made clear, it’s a matter of standing. Recalcitrant professors and administrators “live” on campus. However well-intentioned, those charged with overseeing them are merely “visiting.”

A bit of history may be relevant. In May of 2024, the UNC System Board of Governors replaced Section 300.8.5 of the UNC Policy Manual with a commitment to equality of opportunity and nondiscrimination. The old language, adopted in 2019, required not only the hiring of senior-level “diversity” administrators but a whole host of “strategies” and “goals” designed to spread DEI “throughout all levels and areas of [each] institution.”

The new language, by contrast, demands that “diverse persons of any background … [be] invited, included, and treated equally” throughout the university system. No longer may faculty and staff presume to “speak on behalf of” the university, a rule meant to ensure institutional neutrality. Crucially, employees may no longer mandate “training” on “matters of contemporary political debate” (e.g., the nature and prevalence of racism in America).

(Excerpt) Read more at jamesgmartin.center ...


TOPICS: Education
KEYWORDS: college; dei; unc

1 posted on 08/11/2025 2:27:48 PM PDT by karpov
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To: karpov

DEI is how white liberals make the next generation pay for the privilege they themselves received and have no intention of giving up.


2 posted on 08/11/2025 2:32:11 PM PDT by A_perfect_lady (The greatest wealth is to live content with little. -Plato)
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To: karpov

If this were a private business, a new CEO would be brought on board, and s/he would establish the new standards. Within a year, all employees who chose not to work according to the new standards would be fired/laid off/asked to resign. At UNC, that would likely be around 90% of the faculty and associate staff. There would be a complete turnaround of the faculty, with the college demonstrating the new standards by the end of the second year of the CEO’s tenure.

That will NEVER HAPPEN. The only way DEI and wokeness will be removed from colleges is to shut them down, period.


3 posted on 08/11/2025 2:35:17 PM PDT by chajin ("There is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved." Acts 4:12)
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To: karpov

Asking them to end DEi is like asking them to end progressivism on campus. Simply impossible. Best we can do is prosecute egregious cases.


4 posted on 08/11/2025 2:38:45 PM PDT by nwrep
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To: karpov

This is the same problem that reform-minded conservatives have with DC. The corrupt denizens of permanent DC know that they just have to wait a while. In a year or two, the reformers will be voted out and it will be back to business as usual.


5 posted on 08/11/2025 2:41:21 PM PDT by Antoninus (Republicans are all honorable men.)
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To: karpov

The south was beholden to the Feds for over a hundred years whereby the south could not be trusted to hold elections without discriminating against blacks. I don’t know exactly what the Feds were doing, but I think it was limited to every little change in law or regulation needed Fed approval.

Maybe here, every fire/hire/performance appraisal needs to be federally approved.


6 posted on 08/11/2025 2:44:59 PM PDT by fruser1
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To: karpov

Take over the hiring of faculty. They want to practice DEI, then do it by including conservatives.


7 posted on 08/11/2025 2:48:13 PM PDT by Petrosius
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To: karpov

When Catholic Archbishop Pell was made prelate of Melbourne, Australia, one of the first things he did was close the seminary. It seemed unfair to the good seminarians and even a teacher or two, but it was the only way to resolve the over-arching problem. It might be time to just close the worst offenders outright, and possibly start scaring the other public colleges into order.


8 posted on 08/11/2025 2:49:52 PM PDT by Dr. Sivana ("Whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye." (John 2:5))
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To: karpov

When those UNC students join, or try to join the workforce, is when they’ll change their minds.


9 posted on 08/11/2025 2:54:33 PM PDT by ComputerGuy
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To: karpov

“diverse persons of any background … [be] invited, included, and treated equally”

AWESOME! They will be hiring white, Republican professors!


10 posted on 08/11/2025 3:17:18 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: karpov

As previously noted, when universities pledge that no one will lose their employment when DEI is abolished they are also pledging to reconstitute DEI under other names. A prerequisite to abolish DEI is to fire all those who worked in the DEI departments.


11 posted on 08/11/2025 3:27:33 PM PDT by DugwayDuke (Most pick the expert who says the things they agree with.)
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To: All

Teachers and professors have near total judicial immunity through case law. The best way to reach them imo is through strangling their hiring institution’s revenue stream. If I am not mistaken, trump seems to be making some recent moves in This direction.


12 posted on 08/11/2025 3:46:46 PM PDT by SteveH
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To: chajin

“That will NEVER HAPPEN. The only way DEI and wokeness will be removed from colleges is to shut them down, period.”

State legislatures should simply end tenure at all state universities. Administrators should then require the formerly tenured professors to teach at least 3-4 classes a semester instead of simply advising graduates students and writing books no one will read.

The dirty secret is much of the teaching workload in universities today is performed by adjunct professors who make very little money, have no benefits, and are treated badly by the permanent faculty and administrators. The focus of universities should be teaching, not beating the bushes for government grants to fund worthless research or writing books and articles in order to check off a box on the way to making tenure.


13 posted on 08/11/2025 3:54:20 PM PDT by Soul of the South (The past is gone and cannot be changed. Tomorrow can be a better day if we work on it.)
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To: karpov

The place to start is with the deans of faculty at teachers’ colleges. Institute testing for credentials. Congress should decertify the NEA and redraw the NLRA to withdraw the antitrust exemption unions enjoy and make unions compete in the business of supplying skilled labor. That will improve quality, productivity, and relations among both faculty and students.

That’s to start.


14 posted on 08/11/2025 4:20:29 PM PDT by Carry_Okie (The tree of liberty needs a rope.)
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To: karpov

Start arresting and giving out LONG jail term to the ones you catch. That could send a message to the stupid ones.


15 posted on 08/11/2025 5:28:56 PM PDT by Agatsu77
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To: nwrep

That’s why it’s important to remember when any conservative ‘’pundit’’ says the Left/woke is finished don’t believe it- ever.

They’ve been wounded pretty hard but they are in no way down and out.

They’re just biding their time.


16 posted on 08/11/2025 7:46:39 PM PDT by jmacusa ( Liberals. Too stupid to be idiots.)
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To: karpov

I HAVE SAME STATUS FOR MY DOG(s)


17 posted on 08/11/2025 8:53:15 PM PDT by ridesthemiles (not giving up on TRUMP---EVER)
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To: karpov

I HAVE SAME STATUS FOR MY DOG(s)

SOME TIME GO-—A LONG TIME FRIEND SAID:’WHEN I DIE & COME BACK AGAIN-—I WANT TO BE ONE OF YOUR DOGS..”

HE WAS SERIOUS


18 posted on 08/11/2025 8:54:26 PM PDT by ridesthemiles (not giving up on TRUMP---EVER)
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Arthur Wildfire! March; Berosus; Bockscar; BraveMan; cardinal4; ...

19 posted on 08/12/2025 7:36:28 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (The moron troll Ted Holden believes that humans originated on Ganymede.)
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