The University of North Carolina (UNC) medical school disbanded its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) task force without implementing its recommendations, just months after banning DEI statements from admission, hiring, promotion and tenure.
UNC said it plans to disband its DEI Task Force, without implementing its recommendations, including integrating social justice into the school’s curriculum.
The UNC DEI document also included recommendations that were partially based on the DEI protocols of the Association of American Medical Colleges that requires students to study topics like “Unconscious Bias Awareness,” “Understanding and Responding to Microaggressions,” and “Understanding that America’s medical system is structurally racist.”
In April, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), which monitors and advocates for free speech on college campuses sent a letter to UNC regarding its DEI initiatives.
UNC responded to FIRE’s letter, stating it planned to disband the Task Force with “no plan to implement the Task Force’s recommendations now or in the future.”
“Even if the recommendations were revisited in the future, further review and revision would be required,” the university stated, given the new guidelines adopted by the university that prohibit UNC from requiring an employee or an applicant to “affirmatively ascribe to or opine about beliefs, affiliations, ideals, or principles regarding mattes of contemporary political debate or social action as a condition to admission, employment, or professional advancement.”
In January, Color Us United, which advocates for a race blind society, launched a campaign that called on the university to rescind its DEI policies for medical school staff and students by lobbying school trustees, bringing bills to the state legislature and educating the public on social media.
In February, UNC’s Board of Governors voted to ban diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) statements and compelled speech from consideration in the admission, hiring, promotion and tenure process. Prior to this change, UNC’s med school required applicants to provide a statement detailing their commitment to DEI.
UNC’s School of Medicine Guidelines for Appointment, Promotion and Tenure (APT) previously declared that “A statement for each area is required as part of the C.V.” and “should outline depth and breadth of efforts in each area, including but not limited to impact of work, philosophy and style, team-based projects, and mentee interactions.”
Color Us United President Kenny Xu told Fox News Digital that the move by UNC’s medical school is a win for the medical community and their future patients
“We’re proud of UNC’s decision to reject the DEI framework that lowers the quality of doctors and inundates their students with ideologies that have nothing to do with what is medically necessary,” he said. “Our next step is to take UNC’s decision to other medical schools in our country to fully rid medicine from DEI’s divisive influence. We will also continue monitoring UNC’s School of Medicine to ensure that employees are not fed DEI trainings and curricula any longer.”
“It is important to note UNC is the first medical school to revoke their DEI framework without legislative interference, because it shows that we convinced key decision makers on the merits of revoking DEI, and showed it’s harmful consequences on employees, student education, and the public,” he added, also noting that he will be presenting on the medical school’s DEI programs at the UNC CHapel Hill Board of Trustee meeting in July.
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