DEI, Athletics Budget Top Trustees’ Agenda

Posted on May 17, 2024

UNC Interim Chancellor Lee Roberts said May 16 he couldn’t say whether Carolina’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion, along with the DEI initiatives and programs it oversees, would be eliminated if the Board of Governors votes next week to change its diversity policy.

“I know the board has received an awful lot of feedback and the system office has received a lot of feedback — from the faculty council, from chancellors, from interested folks around the state,” said Roberts, who was speaking at a press conference during a break at the UNC Board of Trustees meeting at the Spangler Center in Chapel Hill. “I don’t know what the final policy is going to look like. I’m not sure anyone who’s not on the Board of Governors knows what the final policy is going to look like. The meeting’s still a week away.”

In April, the Board of Governors’ committee on university governance voted to repeal and replace the UNC System’s current DEI policy with one that would likely eliminate positions at North Carolina’s public universities that oversee DEI initiatives and policies. Many say the policy will not eliminate DEI all together. The Board of Governors is expected to approve the change at its May 22–23 meeting.

One of the programs the diversity office manages is Project Uplift, which works to increase access to higher education for high school students, in particular those who are underrepresented in postsecondary education. Roberts said he is hopeful the program will continue.

“Project Uplift in particular is a longstanding program. I think it’s 50-plus years old,” Roberts said. “It’s an exceptional program. It performs an important role. I haven’t heard anybody say the final policy would require us to do anything about Project Uplift. I think it’s a terrific program that needs to be supported.”

Last month, Roberts said UNC System President Peters Hans ’91 said student centers at UNC that are organized on racial, ethnic, sexual and other identities won’t be affected if the board votes next week to change the diversity policy. UNC operates centers for Black, Latino, Asian American, American Indian and LGBTQ students. A women’s center and a veterans’ resource center also operate on campus.

During the board meeting, Roberts said Carolina must be a welcoming institution for everyone, reiterating remarks he’s made since April when the Board of Governors’ committee voted to change the system’s DEI policy.

In the press conference, Roberts said UNC has a “profound obligation” as the nation’s first public university to reflect the state across every dimension. “And we can’t just reflect it on paper,” he said. “It’s crucial that everyone who comes here feels welcomed here, as though they belong here.”

Days before, UNC trustees voted at a special meeting to reallocate $2.3 million in funding for DEI programs to public safety.

Asked whether he approved of the trustees’ decision, Roberts said their action was done at the policy level, “but as a budget matter, we’re going to have to wait for the implementation guidelines to understand exactly how to redirect our funding.”

In other business, board members discussed the athletics department, which some said is on a trajectory to have a deficit of more than $100 million in the next few years. Athletics Director Bubba Cunningham was at the meeting but left after the board went into closed session. Before the board entered closed session, Chair John Preyer ’91 read a statement clarifying comments made during the special May 13 meeting to approve the budget — at which some trustees cited their unhappiness over not being able to meet with Cunningham to discuss the athletics department budget.

“We do not schedule budget presentations in discussions for closed session, and we did not do that this week,” Preyer said. “Closed session is reserved for the purposes enumerated in state law, including but not limited to discussion of attorney-client privileged information, personnel matters, campus security and other confidential information legally protected from disclosure.

“Protected discussions of these topics may necessarily intersect with a high-profile unit like the athletics department, but we have not and we will not hold a separate presentation of the all-funds athletic budget or any other part of our all-funds budget in closed session today or any other day,” Prior said.

The trustees had apparently planned to discuss the athletics department budget in closed session but did not after a complaint was filed Wednesday afternoon in Orange County court alleging the board was in violation of the state’s open meetings and public records act, according to WRAL. A judge granted a temporary restraining order to stop the board from going into closed session to discuss the athletics department’s “financials, budgeting, deficit, or ongoing or future conference realignment and related strategic planning,” WRAL reported.

“It’s obviously a time of significant upheaval in college athletics,” Roberts said during the press conference. “I’d be very surprised if there was any mismanagement, let alone malfeasance in our athletics department. They’re audited routinely, they’ve been audited 10 times in the last five years, they’re audited every year by the NCAA.”

Roberts said Cunningham is “one of the most senior, well-respected, well-regarded, admired athletic directors in the country,” who has broad respect from his peers. “We don’t have a more capable, more experienced, more talented senior administrator here at Carolina,” Roberts said.

— Laurie D. Willis ‘86