On Monday morning, the Board of Trustees of the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill voted to remove $2.3 million in funding for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs. The board chose to divert the funds to anti-riot “public safety” measures, with the vice chair of the budget and finance committee Marty Kotis remarking that the DEI programs were “discriminatory and divisive.”.
“I think that DEI in a lot of people’s minds is divisiveness, exclusion and indoctrination,” Kotis said. “We need more unity and togetherness, more dialogue, more diversity of thought.”
Kotis and the other board members said they were directing funds toward public safety to defend the school from groups that “disrupt the university’s operations.”
“When you destroy property or you take down the US flag and you have to put up gates around it — that costs money,” Kotis added. “It’s imperative that we have the proper resources for law enforcement to protect the campus.”
The board action comes just weeks after UNC members of Pi Kappa Phi held up an American flag, defending it from Palestine protesters. In the aftermath of the protest, an image of the act went viral, and a fundraiser was launched to throw the fraternity a party. The fundraiser ended shortly after, having raised $515,517.
The protests at UNC were a part of a series of campus protests kicked off by activists at Columbia University. The protests were made possible through a web of funding sources, which link back to George Soros and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, as was previously reported by Valuetainment.
Since the 2020 Black Lives Matter movement, many US companies and Universities have added or strengthened DEI programs. However, this seems to have faded recently, with Google and Meta making cuts to their DEI programs last year. A report from LinkedIn states that Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer hiring grew 168.9 percent from 2019 to 2022, but that included a 4.5 percent reduction from 2021 to 2022.
While DEI programs rose in popularity following the Black Lives Matter movement, many critics have pointed out flaws. In March, Econ Journal Watch published an article debunking a McKinsey & Company study used to push DEI. The Black Lives Matter organization has also been criticized over reports of their executives pocketing millions and giving little of its funds to charities.
Although certain data points indicate fervor for DEI programs has waned, advocates for the programs across the US continue to promote their cause.
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