WILMINGTON — UNCW has provided information on how it’s complying with a UNC System mandate to dismantle Diversity Equity and Inclusion departments ahead of the Sept. 1 compliance deadline.
READ MORE: UNCW quiet on DEI repeal as students call for answers, CFCC group to host its own protest
In a statement Thursday, Chancellor Aswani Volety said UNCW will close the Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion (OIDI), eliminate the Chief Diversity Officer position and shift the cultural and identity centers from OIDI to Student Affairs.
The UNC System Board of Governors voted 22-2 in May on a policy change eliminating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs across all 17 colleges and universities it oversees. This includes the elimination of all chef diversity officers and reallocating funds spent on DEI initiatives and departments to other areas.
Despite student protests to keep the initiatives, the role and effectiveness of DEI programs has been disputed issue in recent years, as Republican-led legislatures across the nation have worked to get rid of the programs in universities. Red states like Texas and Florida implemented bans to DEI programs at public colleges and universities earlier this year.
UNCW alone had 15 positions in its Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion, who have all been offered positions in the Student Affairs or Academic Affairs departments, according to Volety.
Donyell Roseboro was the university’s chief diversity officer; she will be moving back to UNCW’s Watson College of Education, but other employee’s positions changes were not disclosed.
In the wake of the vote, it was unclear how the policy change would affect UNCW’s cultural centers — Upperman African American Cultural Center, Centro Hispano, the Mohin-Scholz LGBTQIA Resource Center, and the Asian Heritage Cultural Center.
Volety said the physical location of these centers will not change, but “some aspects of their staffing and programming will change to comply with the policy requirements and enhance their fit within Student Affairs.”
“The centers will continue to focus on creating and sustaining a sense of belonging for historically marginalized students, while also providing support, service and educational programs to benefit all students,” Volety stated in the announcement.
Port City Daily asked UNCW to provide more details on the centers’ staffing and programming changes; a spokesperson said the university could not share more at this time and directed PCD to the full report that will be published Sept. 1.
UNCW students spoke with PCD ahead of the BOG’s decision and expressed worry about the status of the cultural centers post-policy repeal.
Black Student Union member Jordan Mcleod said he thought the move would invalidate the presence of the centers and further erode a sense of community people of color feel on campus.
Despite enhanced recruitment efforts with the establishment of OIDI, UNCW has remained one of the whitest institutions in the UNCW System. The percentage of Black students at UNCW has stalled at 6% since 2020, though until fall 2023, the number of Black students was growing with the university’s increasing enrollment. Comparatively, around 22% of North Carolina’s population is Black, with 38% enrolled in post secondary education, according to 2022 stats from nonprofit My Future N.C.
Hispanic or Latino students rose from 7% to 8% in 2022 (the state breakdown is 10.5%) and its gender disparity is 65% female, 35% male when females make up 51% of the state population (online data only considers the two biological sexes).
Tips or comments? Email info@localdailymedia.com.
Want to read more from PCD? Subscribe now and then sign up for our morning newsletter, Wilmington Wire, and get the headlines delivered to your inbox every morning.
