WAIVERS: DEI, gone ? No, Brenden. It isn’t gone (and likely isn’t going anywhere)

The state House majority leader just got done telling us DEI is GONE, GONE, GONE from all state-funded stuff in North Carolina.  Now, we’re hearing about these mystical, magical things called *waivers* :

One day after President Donald Trump took office in January, he issued an executive order targeting diversity, equity and inclusion in the federal government, including contracting. Roughly two weeks after Trump signed that order, the UNC System’s top attorney issued guidance on how the action would impact North Carolina’s public universities — many of which hold contracts with the federal government for research or other campus operations.

Andrew Tripp’s Feb. 5 memo was clear: UNC System schools could no longer require students to take courses related to DEI as part of their mandatory general-education curricula. But the memo also left open the possibility that some courses might remain as part of individual majors or graduate programs, provided the courses were “substantially related” to the program and campus chancellors approved a waiver allowing the requirements to continue. For months, it has been unclear what courses — if any — would be permitted to remain as requirements across the system. Now, we have some answers.

The UNC System Board of Governors will meet this week and receive an update on the topic in a Wednesday committee meeting. Thanks to materials made available online for the meeting, we have a preview of which DEI courses were granted waivers. […]

Tripp’s memo required all campuses to report to the Board of Governors’ educational planning committee any waivers that their chancellors granted. At this week’s meeting, the committee will receive a report on those waivers.

According to meeting materials, in all, 14 UNC System chancellors granted waivers for DEI coursework in at least one major or graduate program on their campuses. Only the UNC School of the Arts and UNC Wilmington reported that they did not have any program-specific courses that would run afoul of the guidance in Tripp’s memo.

At the remaining schools, chancellors approved waivers for as few as one or two programs at some schools, to several more at other campuses. NC State University, for instance, approved waivers only for the university’s undergraduate and graduate social work programs.NC A&T State University, an historically Black university, on the other hand, approved waivers for agricultural education, child development and family studies, gerontology, social work, special education and more.

In general, programs in social work, education and nursing — and related fields — were the most common programs to receive waivers. As explained in the chancellors’ letters to the board, that’s because accreditation and professional competencies for those disciplines generally require students to be proficient in areas related to DEI.

At Appalachian State University, for example, Chancellor Heather Norris approved a waiver for the Counseling, Family Therapy, and Higher Education Program because the “DEI competencies” included in the program’s course of study “are directly tied to the CTH Program’s accreditation requirements and the licensure requirements established by the North Carolina Board of Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselors and Appalachian’s accreditors.”

Elizabeth City State University offered similar reasoning for interim Chancellor Catherine Edmonds granting waivers for courses required for programs in social work and education. “The courses for which we are requesting a waiver are substantially related to the relevant academic majors and are directly aligned with discipline-specific accreditation standards and/or licensure requirements,” Edmonds wrote. “These courses are essential to ensuring our students meet the professional competencies and regulatory expectations required in their fields.”

Some chancellors’ reports also detail the processes campus officials used to determine whether courses were out of compliance with Tripp’s guidance. I took particular interest in East Carolina University’s process, given that I reported in March on the keywords university leaders there were using in a campus-wide “screening” of courses for DEI content.

“ECU … engaged in immediate review of all programmatic requirements for degree programs, as well as review of any certificate or other programs. This included review of 279 degrees and certificates, 87 minors, 63 college and departmental pages in the undergraduate catalogue, and 75 college and departmental pages in the graduate catalogue,” Chancellor Philip Rogers wrote in his report to the Board of Governors.

At the time of my report, I only knew a handful of words, based on those that faculty had publicly shared in a campus meeting: culture, justice and women’s rights. Now, I know the full list. ECU fulfilled my records request for the keywords and directions for the screening, more than two months after I filed it.

Per the documents ECU provided to me, those keywords used to screen courses were:

• DEI
• Diversity
• Equity
• Inclusion
• Minority
• Underrepresented
• Justice
• Social Environment
• Social Justice
• Racial
• Gay rights
• LGBTQ
• Transgender
• Reproductive Rights
• Women’s Rights
• Gun Rights
• Hamas Israel – Hamas Antisemitism
• Culture
• Cultural
• Intercultural

After all was said and done, ECU identified three programs that needed a waiver for DEI content: social work, teacher licensure programs and special education. The university also “took action to revise courses or include additional course options so that students are not required to take courses with DEI content,” per Rogers’ report.

Also of note: UNC-Chapel Hill informed the board that it has revised the name of one of its general-education requirements, which it previously said was in compliance with Tripp’s guidance. Instead of “power, difference and equality,” students will now fulfill a course requirement in “power and society.” The reason? The former name “had language that could be construed as requiring content in violation of the memo,” per Chancellor Lee Roberts’ memo to the board.

Changing DEI’s name but keeping all the guts and content?  That sounds soooooo familiar. 

*That’s right.  Change the name and keep the doofuses who pay for it all in the dark just a little longer. *