{"id":27220,"date":"2024-05-14T04:17:20","date_gmt":"2024-05-14T09:17:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=27220"},"modified":"2024-05-14T04:17:26","modified_gmt":"2024-05-14T09:17:26","slug":"university-of-north-carolina-to-divert-2-3m-dei-budget-to-safety-and-policing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=27220","title":{"rendered":"University of North Carolina to divert $2.3m DEI budget to safety and policing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Some members of board of trustees, which voted for divestment, cited students\u2019 Gaza protests as reason for redesignation of funds<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Monday, the University of North Carolina<\/a> (UNC), Chapel Hill announced that it would divert the school\u2019s entire $2.3m diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) budget toward public safety and policing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some members of the board of trustees, which voted for the divestment, cited students\u2019 recent anti-war demonstrations as a reason for the redesignation of funds to the campus police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monday\u2019s unanimous board vote affects UNC Chapel Hill\u2019s diversity funding, and could lead to the shuttering of the department and job losses. Conversely, the public safety and policing departments are getting a boost to their $14m<\/a> budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two weeks ago, student protesters at the school created an encampment<\/a> on campus in solidarity with Palestine and against Israel\u2019s ongoing war in Gaza. Thirty-six people were detained after refusing to disperse from campus; 27 people were cited for trespassing and released; and six others were arrested and charged with trespassing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though local Chapel Hill police were not involved, the UNC campus police were supported by North Carolina State University\u2019s police, UNC Wilmington\u2019s police, Appalachian State University\u2019s police, state patrol officers and sheriff deputies (dressed in what looked like riot gear), according to the Daily Tarheel<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some Chapel Hill council members, students and faculty were alarmed by the campus police\u2019s response to students\u2019 protests, and condemned<\/a> what they called \u201can escalation of force\u201d, which included \u201cthe use of pepper spray against its own students\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Board members, however, defended the campus police. Days before Monday\u2019s vote, Kotis wrote an inflammatory op-ed\u2002<\/a>in the North State Journal about the students\u2019 protests, and the lack of response from local law enforcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe General Assembly needs to respond strongly to Cooper\u2019s and Chapel Hill\u2019s unwillingness to enforce law and order,\u201d he wrote. \u201cIt should consider moving funds from any municipalities unwilling to support fellow law enforcement and give the UNC system the additional resources to handle emergencies like the one at UNC Chapel Hill last week.\u201d

According to the school\u2019s website, the office of diversity and inclusion\u2019s mission is to \u201ccreate and sustain a diverse, inclusive and welcoming environment for all students, faculty and alumni\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the vice-chair of the board\u2019s budget and finance committee, Marty Kotis, indicated that he considered the DEI programs to be disharmonious to the campus atmosphere. \u201cI think that DEI in a lot of people\u2019s minds is divisiveness, exclusion and indoctrination,\u201d Kotis said at the meeting during which the vote was held. \u201cWe need more unity and togetherness, more dialogue, more diversity of thought.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a March interview with the assembly<\/a>, board member Woody White wrote: \u201cThough guised as a \u2018student success\u2019 support system, the reality is that on some campuses, the DEI regime has become the enforcement mechanism with which to push radical ideology. Under the auspice of \u2018righting past wrongs,\u2019 it has been weaponized to allow discrimination, and it pits races and genders against each other.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UNC Chapel Hill\u2019s commencement was held the day before Monday\u2019s DEI announcement. At the ceremony, football stadium screens displayed a message that read: \u201cAnyone who does not leave or put down signs when asked will be removed and arrested. Thank you for your cooperation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

theguardian<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some members of board of trustees, which voted for divestment, cited students\u2019 Gaza protests as reason for redesignation of funds On Monday, the University of North Carolina (UNC), Chapel Hill announced that it would divert the school\u2019s entire $2.3m diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) budget toward public safety and policing. Some members of the board of trustees, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":27221,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5781],"tags":[3314,8591,1151,1239,2902,25518,28392],"class_list":["post-27220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","tag-budget","tag-dei","tag-gaza","tag-israel","tag-policing","tag-pro-palestine","tag-unc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27220"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27222,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27220\/revisions\/27222"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}