UNC Board Votes Against Woke Forced Diversity
At its recent Board of Governors meeting, the University of North Carolina (UNC) voted to prohibit the compulsory submission of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) statements by students and staff. This decision follows a similar move by another North Carolina institution, N.C. State University, which recently dropped its requirement for applicants to respond to an essay question affirming the DEI agenda.
Following the conclusion of the UNC meeting, the board issued a statement regarding its decision on DEI, saying the university “shall neither solicit nor require an employee or applicant for academic admission or employment to affirmatively ascribe to or opine about beliefs, affiliations, ideals, or principles regarding matters of contemporary political debate or social action as a condition to admission, employment, or professional advancement.”
The statement went on to say an employee or applicant also can’t “be solicited or required to describe his or her actions in support of, or in opposition to, such beliefs, affiliations, ideals, or principles.” The new rule also prohibits practices such as “solicitations or requirements for statements of commitment to particular views on matters of contemporary political debate or social action contained on applications or qualifications for admission or employment included as criteria for analysis of an employee’s career progression.”
A campaign to prevent the integration of social justice issues into the curriculum of the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, along with a petition, has been launched by Color Us United, a group that advocates for a “race-blind America.”
President of Color Us United, Kenny Xu, says UNC’s decision will have “have higher implications for higher education across the country.” In a statement regarding Color Us United’s fight against bias in education, Xu said, “We believe in a race-blind, meritocratic society with high standards, and that’s what has traditionally produced excellence in the United States. When we saw wokeness and DEI infiltrating the medical profession, that’s when we became concerned because medicine is the one place where everybody knows, liberals, conservatives and independents, that you need the most qualified doctor to get the best outcome. When diversity, equity and inclusion says ‘No, you need doctors of a certain race’ or ‘No, we need to be teaching things from the lens of social justice rather than the biological practice of medicine,’ that’s when we got concerned.”
https://twitter.com/kennymxu/status/1629255695697694723?s=20
In early February, the University of North Carolina declared its intention to combat woke ideology. Other schools and states have followed suit and are also taking steps to address the issue. Earlier this month, Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) introduced an initiative to ban DEI in all state colleges.