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"NC university’s first response to DEI ban? Striking use of ‘race,’ ‘equality,’ ‘white’
Like all educational institutions receiving federal dollars, High Point University had two weeks to respond to a Trump administration edict last month that it cease diversity, equality and inclusion efforts.
A week later the private university distributed a list of
49 banned words or terms, including “equality,” “gender,” “black and latinx,” “white” and “white supremacy” to be removed from all “documents, events and presentations.” Course descriptions, student handbooks, class syllabi and webpages were among the university publications listed for censoring.
A spokesman for the American Association of University Professors, which represents faculty across the country, said it was
among the most extreme responses to a letter from the U.S. Department of Education that he was aware of.
After The News & Observer contacted High Point Provost Daniel Erb on Sunday about the list, Erb emailed text from an email he said he sent to deans that day backing off from the word ban.
“(O)ur legal counsel has helped clarify that our priority should be on ensuring all our program qualifications and requirements do not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, religious beliefs, etc.,” the text said. “Therefore, the concern about the language that is used is no longer a focus.
“You no longer need to conduct audits regarding the list of words that were originally identified as words that might lead to an audit by the federal government. There are no terms or words that you are required to change,” it stated.
The N&O reached out to numerous High Point faculty on Sunday, the last day of their week-long spring break, about the word ban. One faculty member was willing to comment but did not want to be identified, fearing retaliation.
“It gave me a sense of anxiety, and this is like ‘1984,” the professor said, referring to George Orwell’s classic dystopian novel about a “big brother” government that resorts to censorship, fabrication and surveillance to keep its citizens under control.
The ban list also included a prohibition on faculty providing pronoun preferences in their email correspondence. University spokesman Alex Abrams said the university has had a policy for at least a year limiting “email signatures” to “name, title, academic credentials and contact information.”
Battle over DEI initiatives
The aggressive efforts by President Donald Trump’s administration to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programming from the federal government and beyond has drawn praise from his supporters. It’s also drawn lawsuits and harsh criticism.
The AAUP and other groups recently
won a preliminary injunction from a federal judge stopping parts of two Trump executive orders banning DEI efforts that are included in a “Dear Colleague” letter dated Feb. 14 that the U.S. Education Department sent out.
Kelly Benjamin, an AAUP spokesman, said High Point’s list of temporarily banned words is among the most extreme responses he’s seen to the letter. He, too, referenced “1984.”
“That is a very Orwellian list of censored terms that should be concerning for anybody who cares about higher education, and to have that kind of guidance from an administration is incredibly troubling,” he said.
Craig Trainor, the acting assistant secretary for civil rights within the U.S. Department of Education,
sent the letter to schools, universities and colleges directing them to remove all DEI programs or risk the loss of federal funding for research and student grants.
Trainor cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard — a case that included UNC-Chapel Hill as a
defendant — that struck down race-based admissions.
Erb, in his email Sunday to the deans retracting the word ban, said the federal letter left the university in a quandary.
“As you know, universities were given just 14 days to comply with the Dear Colleague letter mandates in order to maintain federal funding, and my initial communication with you came after the termination of several national Department of Education grants for local educators, of which our School of Education was a recipient,” he said. “None of us want to see our students or university lose funding.”
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