University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

On June 29, 2023, UNC's Chancellor issued a statement in response to the Supreme Court's ruling in "Students for Fair Admissions Inc. v. University of North Carolina, et. al." which reads in part as follows: "While not the outcome we hoped for, we respect the Supreme Court’s decision and will follow its guidance. Carolina is committed to bringing together talented students with different perspectives and life experiences...I know that this decision may raise questions about our future and how we fulfill our mission and live out our values. But Carolina is built for this, and we have been preparing for any outcome. Our leadership team will need time to thoroughly review the details of this outcome and its potential impact before determining specifically how we will comply with this decision."

UNC's "Racial Equity Task Force" recommended that, "Students, faculty and staff members across the university system, especially those in supervisory roles, should be trained in racial and cultural issues and to recognize bias."

UNC Chancellor Kevin M. Guskiewicz announced through a mass email and online letter that UNC faculty and staff will be required to participate in “diversity, equity and inclusion training” beginning in March. This Is the first of several planned trainings (this one titled: “Managing Bias”), and a separate training program is in development for the undergraduate students as well.

In June, UNC proposed the creation of a “Racial Equity Institute” training for senior leaders (vice chancellors, vice provosts, deans)

The Office of the Provost has an UODI Education, Training & Facilitation page which offers team trainings including “Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging (DIB) Online Modules,” “DIB LinkedIn Learning at Carolina,” and “Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) & Intercultural Conflict Style.” In the past, trainings have ranged from topics including “Psychological Safety & Inclusion,” “Foundations of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion,” “Bias & Microaggressions,” “Fostering an Inclusive Classroom,” and “Engaging Conflict Productively.”

The English and Comparative Literature Department's “Diversity & Inclusion” page includes a “Statement of Support of the Black Lives Matter Movement,”

In June 2023, students of psychology collectively signed a letter to request that Dr. Yoel Inbar would not be hired for a position he was extremely close to receiving, resulting in UCLA making the choice to not hire Dr. Inbar. The letter cited that they “feel serious consideration of Dr. Inbar directly conflicts with the values and standards we uphold as an institution and department committed to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)” due to Dr. Inbar’s podcast. In the podcast, Dr. Inbar expressed that he believed DEI statements and DEI factors should not be used for faculty hiring.

UNC's "Racial Equity Task Force" recommended that, "campus police agencies refer more students to counseling or the student conduct process rather than prosecuting them criminally."

UNC's music department introduced a "Do the Work Wednesday" series, providing anti-racist resources, as well as posts on racism and sexism in American music theory.

The UNC Office for Diversity and Inclusion holds a “Race, Racism and Racial Equity (R3) Symposium” which is intended to promote the causes of diversity, equity, and inclusion, while simultaneously addressing concepts such as “implicit bias.”

The UNC Office for Diversity and Inclusion holds "Carolina Conversations” events that are all intended to promote the causes of diversity, equity, and inclusion, while simultaneously addressing concepts such as “implicit bias.”

The UNC Office for Diversity and Inclusion holds an annual “THINKposium" which is intended to promote the causes of diversity, equity, and inclusion, while simultaneously addressing concepts such as “implicit bias.”

UNC Libraries has a full page full of resources related to understanding and combatting “implicit bias” in favor of DEI.

Department of English and Comparative Literature's page contains a “D&I Committee” link, and an assortment of DEI related material.

The School of Education offers two courses explicitly based on Critical Race Theory: EDUC 512 “Critical Examination of Racism and Education: African American Case Example” & EDUC 972 “Critical Race Theory: History, Research, and Practice”

UNC has a Postdoc program for the purpose of “develop[ing] scholars who can contribute to the diversity of the campus” and transitioning them to a tenure track position at UNC or other research universities.

University libraries have launched the "Reckoning Initiative" "to advance racial equity, inclusion and antiracism within the organization and through its work."

The university offers extensive DEI training opportunities for students, faculty, and staff. This also includes the "Racism Scale," a way in which individuals can gauge their level of racist tendencies.

The Claremont Institute Center for the American Way of Life published a January 2022 report titled "Critical Social Justice in the UNC System," which discusses how many UNC system schools "promote CSJ policies under the seemingly innocuous rubric of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)." According to the report, DEI implementation operates at UNC-CH in the following ways: "DEI efforts have been sown into the operations and curriculum at UNC-Chapel Hill over a long period of time. Not only does it have more staff dedicated to promoting the cause (at least 17 chancellor-level administrators), but also the staff dedicated to the cause reach deeper into university operations than any other NC university. Eight out of the 10 colleges have deans dedicated to DEI programming."

Alongside Harvard University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is facing a lawsuit from Students for Fair Admissions that was taken to the level of the Supreme Court. It is reported that, “Students for Fair Admissions, the plaintiff in both cases, alleges in court filings that Harvard and UNC-Chapel Hill ‘award mammoth racial preferences’ to African American and Hispanic applicants, to the detriment of White and Asian American applicants, and ignore ‘race-neutral’ alternatives that might preserve student diversity.”

It was reported in December of 2022 that the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill “deleted criteria for a nutrition fellowship program, for which only applicants who were Black, indigenous or people of color were eligible, following a civil rights complaint.”

In February of 2023, it was announced that a Board of Governors meeting materialized a decision to “ban students and staff from being forced to make diversity, equity and inclusion statements.” This was after a 2021 student application requirement to commit to inclusivity in a statement and consecutive essay outlining the individual’s steps towards diversity and inclusion.

UNC’s Center for Information, Technology, and Public Life hosted an event on September 23, 2022 on “Critical Race Theory: Why it Matters & Why You Should Care.”

In Fall of 2022, the Center for Information, Technology, and Public Life at UNC offered a speaker series on the theme “identity, institutions, and inequality.”

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill offers several classes that discuss racism through a DEI lens, including RELI 60 “First-Year Seminar: Religion and Racism,” PHIL 274 “Race, Racism, and Social Justice: African-American Political Philosophy,” PSYC 69 “First-Year Seminar: Racism, Racial Identity, and African American Mental Health,” AAAD 451 “Orality, Literacy, and Cultural Production: African-Americans and Racial Modernity,” PLCY 75 “First-Year Seminar: Debates in Public Policy and Racial Inequality,” PSYC 472 “Racial Discrimination and Minority Youth,” and PLAN 270 “Urban Inequality and Inclusion.”

The ODI provides awards for the most active members in the university (faculty, staff, graduate and undergraduate students, alumni, etc. ) in promoting diversity, equity and inclusion.

UNC History Department posted a “Statement on White House Memo Barring Federal Agencies from Race-Related Trainings” in response to a Trump administration memo banning Critical Race Theory training sessions. The Letter claims that ”Critical Race Theory is not propaganda. It is a scholarly framework that describes how race, class, gender, and sexuality organize American life.”

In June, UNC promised the establishment of a DEI advisory board and a series of “climate surveys”.

Gillings School of Global Public Health has a dedicated “Inclusive Equity Team” to promote DEI, as also expressed in their message on “Our Commitment to Equity.”

Letter posted on Department of Geography homepage in June highlighted the need to “implement anti-racism in our department, discipline, and institution.”

As part of the new "Black History Month Research Series," there were workshops on "How to be an anti-racist researcher" and "Conceptualizing anti-racist research."

A list of anti-racist initiatives started at UNC at Chapel Hill was released.

In February 2022, the "Race and Memory at UNC" discussion explored its racial history and the controversy behind it.