North Carolina Eliminates DEI Indoctrination in Academic Coursework

Add North Carolina to the list of states that are acting to ensure students do not have to undergo “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) indoctrination just to graduate from a public university. This reform takes a giant step toward eliminating the DEI scourge in higher education and restoring universities to their core missions of education and research.  

The Board of Governors, which oversees all public universities in North Carolina, recently removed all general education and program requirements that forced students to take DEI courses. This welcome policy change follows monumental executive orders from President Donald Trump, which rolled back discriminatory DEI practices from the federal government and the recipients of federal funds. These executive orders, however, rightly left the issue of DEI in academic coursework to the states. After all, oversight over the academic curriculum has always been the responsibility of the states, not the federal government.  

The Board of Governors has taken swift and appropriate action to eliminate requirements that force students to take DEI courses as a condition of completing a degree. The board’s new policy makes room for more academically serious coursework and potentially saves taxpayer and tuition dollars. The Goldwater Institute found that DEI requirements cost students and state taxpayers in North Carolina at least $46 million over each four-year period in which the student body has to complete the requirements.  

North Carolina is following several other states—including Iowa, Oklahoma, and Arizona—that are advancing Goldwater’s Freedom from Indoctrination Act, a landmark reform that prohibits mandatory DEI course requirements in public universities. This reform directs the boards of state universities to ensure that students can complete their degrees without being forced into DEI courses. The North Carolina Board of Governors is taking responsibility on its own to ensure that students receive a rigorous and useful education at public universities.  

Other states should look to North Carolina’s example. The boards that oversee public higher education have a duty to eliminate mandatory DEI from academic coursework, helping to restore public universities to their foundational purpose of education, not indoctrination.  

Timothy K. Minella is a Senior Fellow at the Goldwater Institute’s Van Sittert Center for Constitutional Advocacy.