Eliminating pro-diversity programming in public universities will jeopardize North Carolina's ranking as the top in the country for business, a group of business leaders and Democratic state lawmakers said Wednesday.
The UNC System's Board of Governors plans to vote Thursday to repeal DEI policies for all 17 public universities across the state. State lawmakers, business leaders and UNC students convened at the legislature Wednesday, ahead of that vote, to lodge a last-minute plea for the university system leaders not to go through with it.
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"Our world has become so different, and it's changing so rapidly, and North Carolina is evolving alongside these global changes," said Rep. Maria Cervania, D-Wake. "Our businesses know this. They've told us they want a workforce that can keep up with our new, globalized world. DEI is actually the best program that's helping equip our students for that."
A Filipina-American who is one of few Asian people to ever serve in the state legislature, Cervania has personal experience in those kinds of business negotiations from her previous role as a Wake County Commissioner. She and other commissioners sat down with executives of massive corporations like Apple and Fujifilm that were thinking of expanding here.
"These leaders sought out North Carolina because of our education system," she said. "... North Carolina has been No. 1 for the last two years when it comes to business, and this is largely because of our talent pipeline, and our human resources. We will not maintain this title if we go further in divesting from important DEI programs."
The head of the Morrisville Chamber of Commerce — the business lobbying group for the booming, diverse and tech-heavy Raleigh suburb — agreed. "If we do not foster a culture where all are understood and appreciated, we in effect remove the welcome mat for so many," Morrisville chamber president Rose Cornelious said during Wednesday's news conference. "In order to maintain our forward momentum in our local economy, we must be intentional about what we do and what we are telegrphing to the world."
Republican state lawmakers have said the true credit for the state's best-in-business rankings, bestowed by CNBC the past years in a row, is due to their efforts cutting income tax rates and reducing or eliminating business and environmental regulations.
Republicans are also the ones who are pushing for the university system's DEI policies to be undone. Every member of the Board of Governors that will be voting on DEI repeal Thursday was appointed by Republican legislative leaders, and the 24 BOG members are largely made up of former state lawmakers, GOP political donors and influential lobbyists.
The BOG approved the current DEI policy in 2019. But following a nationwide conservative backlash against DEI programs and other similar efforts following the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, the BOG now plans to undo that policy and replace it with a new one that prevents universities from endorsing pro-diversity views — or any other social or political messaging.
"We cannot require everyone to think the same way about race, gender, or any other challenging topic," said BOG chairman Randy Ramsey, a conservative businessman who ran unsuccessfully for a state Senate seat before being named to the BOG.
Exactly how to implement the new policies will likely be left up to each individual campus, where leadership is likewise dominated by Republican political appointees. Earlier this month the governing board for UNC-Chapel Hill voted to support eliminating 100% of its DEI jobs and programs — which in 2021 cost $2.3 million, the latest available figure — and instead send that money to campus police.
“DEI is divisive,” Dave Boliek, a UNC-Chapel Hill trustee who is also this year’s Republican Party nominee for state auditor, said during that meeting. “I don't think it's productive.”
On Wednesday at the legislature a UNC-Chapel Hill med school student studying to be a neurosurgeon, Nehemiah Stewart, said campus DEI programs have absolutely helped him and other Black students like him — but that DEI programs are aimed at many different groups, not just Black students.
Since the current DEI policies were approved in 2019, Stewart said, citing data from UNC, the graduation rate for all UNC students from minority, low-income or rural backgrounds increased by 30%.
"When we get students familiar, give them core skill sets to survive in these foreign environments, we increase their chances for success," he said, noting that he also attended Carolina for undergrad before the policies were in place. "These DEI programs — I've seen it with my own eyes — have brought forward a new generation of clinicians, engineers, lawyers, thought leaders."
What other students are saying
On campus in Chapel Hill, WRAL News asked UNC students what message they wanted the Board of Governors to consider.
"I would say take the time," one student said. "Take the time to listen to the students that are speaking today. Take the time to listen to students, faculty and staff also who are on your campuses that rely on you all to make decisions that are not only for current times but for the future, and look at where you want us to all be."
In an interview with WRAL, Cervania encouraged her lawmaker colleagues to visit with students on campuses to see the effect of DEI programs.
She said, "They'll realize a lot of these programs are safe spaces for people, for students to understand one another and actually help themselves in their understanding of where they belong in the world, where they see themselves in the future as they get higher education and go into the workforce."
Another student pointed to the future as well, noting that today's students will graduate into a corporate climate that prizes diversity.
"We have to have a global mindset and diversity, equity inclusion, that's what that is all about," the student said.