Frequently Searched

North Carolina Eliminates DEI Indoctrination in Academic Coursework

February 10, 2025

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. 

 

 

More on this issue

Donate Now

Help all Americans live freer, happier lives. Join the Goldwater Institute as we defend and strengthen freedom in all 50 states.

Donate Now

Since 1988, the Goldwater Institute has been in the liberty business — defending and promoting freedom, and achieving more than 400 victories in all 50 states. Donate today to help support our mission.

We Protect Your Rights

Our attorneys defend individual rights and protect those who cannot protect themselves.

Need Help? Submit a case.

Get Connected to Goldwater

Sign up for the latest news, event updates, and more.

Wait! Don’t close this yet!

We are grateful for your support of the Goldwater Institute’s efforts to advance and defend liberty throughout the United States. For over 36 years, we’ve been defending the rights of Americans to live their lives free from government interference.

And Goldwater is unique in that we direct our efforts to the 50 states where we introduce and advance innovative ideas that expand freedom. And we fight in courtrooms and capitals nationwide to defend individual liberty.

In 2024 alone, we scored over 50 policy and litigation victories defending liberty!

And that’s just the beginning.

Our plans for 2025 include:

  • Stopping pernicious DEI and other woke programs in America’s universities.
  • Ensuring that patients suffering from rare and terminal diseases have access to cutting-edge, lifesaving medical treatments, without having to first seek permission from the government.
  • Defending parental rights across the United States so that parents can send their kids to the school that best fits their needs, free from leftist indoctrination.
  • Eliminating government interference in the fundamental right of individuals to own property and use it as they see fit.
  • And much, much more

We seek to restore the presumption of liberty; that people are free to act without first asking permission from the government.

But we cannot do this without you. Will you join us as we fight to preserve and advance liberty throughout the country? As we seek new and innovative ways to defend freedom in all 50 states?

And there’s great news: Thanks to a generous Goldwater supporter, your donation today will be doubled!

So please, join us in fighting to advance liberty and score real wins for freedom from coast to coast!