Story produced with Mackenzie Atkinson
The University of North Carolina system sent out a memorandum on Feb. 5 about systemwide implementation of President Donald Trump’s Jan. 21 Executive Order “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity” to all chancellors and provosts.
The memo goes into detail about new requirements for working with federal agencies that comply with the Jan. 21 order. The memo also shares how universities should adjust policies to comply with the order.
On Feb. 20, WCU students, faculty and staff received an email from Chancellor Kelli Brown and Provost Richard Starnes addressing the changes and WCU’s response. The email acknowledged the ongoing confusion and anxiety many might feel as a result of the changes.
“We realize that you may have questions about the potential impact of these changes on the daily operations of the University,” it read. “The answer to these questions, with the information we have now, is that we anticipate very little direct impact on our students, faculty and staff. That does not alleviate, however, the feelings of unease that for many are created by lack of clarity.”
Regarding diversity, equity and inclusion, known as DEI, the email brought up two elements that might be impacted by the order: research funding and required courses built into the general education and major-specific curriculum.
Research funding, grants
Research funding or grants and contracts relating to DEI topics may be at risk of losing federal funding.
“At this time, WCU has no plans to freeze hiring or eliminate positions that are grant-funded. We advise researchers and research teams on campus to continue working on projects as normal,” the email said.
The potential loss of federal funding has confused and frightened many researchers at WCU.
At the Feb. 26 Faculty Senate meeting, Mariana Da Costa, Faculty Senate chair and School of Nursing assistant professor, said many faculty and staff members have expressed concern over temporary funding freezes.
“The Office Of Management and Budget’s directive on Jan. 27 temporarily suspended non-personal spending on federal funded projects and grants. This led to a lot of uncertainty, and rightfully so,” Da Costa said. “While the directive was swiftly rescinded, and did not directly impact WCU grant operations, I think it’s important to note that the situation had heightened some level of stress and concern among faculty and staff regarding future funding.”
School of Nursing Department Head, Terrica Durbin, received a $41,000 grant from the North Carolina Area Health Education Center Program for empowering underrepresented nursing students.
“We really don’t know what the impact will be, if any,” Durbin said. “We certainly intend to comply with any rules or regulations that come to us from the funders or from our legislators. Our region faces many health challenges, as you know, and so our work to improve the health of the people around us will continue.”
DEI in the curriculum
Per the Jan. 21 Executive Order and subsequent UNC System Office memo, university-required courses that require DEI as part of the program are to be suspended immediately. This includes courses for general education and major programs. The courses themselves are still allowed to be offered as electives.
“Specifically, campuses were directed to immediately suspend all general education requirements and major-specific requirements mandating completion of course credits related to diversity, equity, and inclusion, or any other topic identified in Section VII of the UNC Equality Policy,” the Chancellor and Provost’s email said.
Provost Richard Starnes said various programs and courses were being looked into to ensure compliance with the executive order and memo, but no action has been taken. Full assessments of these programs have not been carried out because of the ever-changing landscape of DEI policy and definitions.
“The System policy is not so much around individual classes it is around the requiring of students to take those courses and so we will navigate that as we go,” Starnes said. “I cannot comment on what the future holds but I can say that we will continue to focus on our students and do our best to teach the curriculum our faculty develop. We will do our best to continue to make Western as inclusive of a community for all members, faculty, staff and students, that we can.”
There have been no specific courses and course curriculum halted or changed as a result of the Jan. 21 executive order or the Feb. 5 memo to date.
Case-by-case basis
The email said WCU’s liberal studies program, required of all degree-seeking students, is already compliant with the order as it includes no required DEI component. However, some major-specific courses have been impacted and are being addressed on a case-by-case basis.
Programs such as social work and criminal justice have a diversity requirement as part of a cultural competency expectation required by the academic accreditor. These programs have not been impacted and are awaiting further guidance from WCU administration, according to Criminology and Criminal Justice Department Head, Dr. Karen Mason.
At the Faculty Senate meeting, Da Costa said WCU faculty and staff will continue to prioritize student success throughout these federal policy changes after the “Dear Colleague” letter.
“Many faculty members do see this as a challenge to academic freedom, faculty governance over curriculum and accreditation requirements,” Da Costa said. “Faculty want to do the right thing. It’s important to us to promote student success, so some of the language and some of these directives are challenging sometimes because it’s challenging the way we have been doing things for a while.”
The Feb. 5 UNC memo said chancellors have the ability to approve waivers for some major-specific requirements if requested and deemed appropriate. The waivers would have to be reported to the Board of Governors’ Committee on Educational Planning, Policies and Programming.
Any changes to programs must go through the Faculty Senate before being brought to administration and implemented.
“We will be working with the Faculty Senate and the individual programs to address any issues that may come up and go from there,” Starnes said. “We are living in a very dynamic policy environment and that means a lot of shifting back and forth and a lot of contingency planning that doesn’t actually get implemented because the policies and the executive orders change. It is a moving target.”
According to Starnes, waivers have not been drafted by the Chancellor’s Office and thus no waivers have been submitted.
Story originally published in The Sylva Herald March 6 edition
