Will Fayetteville State, other NC HBCUs, see a big impact from elimination of DEI?

The governing body for the UNC System is moving to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs at the state’s public campuses.

Among the 17 public universities, five are historically Black.

I wondered how the decision might impact Fayetteville State University, the oldest historically Black public university in North Carolina. I also wondered about the impact on HBCUs like FSU of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in June 2023 striking down the use of affirmative action in admissions.

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For many predominantly Black schools, diversity efforts include boosting white and other non-Black enrollment.

Turns out, FSU is avoiding public comment on the impacts of either DEI or affirmative action changes.

Devon T. Smith, university spokesman, said to my email request: “We aren’t going to comment on this story.”

The DEI decision is not definite yet, so I can somewhat understand the skittishness to engage in the issue when the UNC system's Board of Governors manages the university’s purse strings. I do not see why our local university cannot comment on affirmative action impacts, as that became enforceable law as soon as the Supreme Court ruled it so.

News site Center Square reported after the Court decision last June that FSU referred questions on affirmative action to Peter Hans, UNC system president, who released a statement that the system would follow the law.

“Our public universities do extraordinary work every day to serve students of all backgrounds, beliefs, income levels and life experiences,” the statement read. “Every student in North Carolina should know that the UNC System welcomes their talent and ambition. The most important work of higher education is not in deciding how to allocate limited admissions slots at highly competitive schools, but in reaching and encouraging more students to take advantage of our 16 remarkable public universities.”

Signs of a boost

In March, Smith said that Fayetteville State attracted 1,000 more applications “this cycle compared to last year,” according to a story in the Raleigh News & Observer about climbing enrollments at HBCUs. It was a boost of around 18%.

We should be careful drawing a straight line from those numbers to the affirmative action decision, which was generally expected to reduce the number of minority applications to predominantly white schools.

Fayetteville State has seen increasing enrollment for years, mostly driven by its participation in NC Promise, a program that offers $500 tuition.  There were 6,878 students enrolled in 2023, according to WRAL, citing University Chancellor Darrell T. Allison.

An FSU press release in September said "the university welcomed its largest, most diverse, first-year class in nearly 20 years, and FSU scored its highest student retention rate in recent years to nearly 78% which is a staggering increase of 14% in just two years (63.3%) in 2020."

Nationally, the impact of affirmative action on HBCUs is in a wait-and-plan phase, according to Inside Higher Education.

Some HBCU officials expected a “deluge of applications from Black prospective students dismayed by the decision or anticipating being rejected by selective predominantly white institutions,” while others were not sure they would be ready if that flood happened, the online magazine reported.

Doing the work

A UNC Board of Governors committee unanimously forwarded a motion with little comment to eliminate DEI programs, which have been in place just since 2019. The items appear on the full board's consent agenda for its next meeting, scheduled for May 22 and May 23 in Raleigh. In regular people’s terms, that means it is likely to pass — again with little to no comment.

The right-leaning board’s move is part of a politically driven trend in Southern-based university systems like Florida, Texas, Louisiana and Tennessee to eliminate any appearance of advantaging minorities over everyone else.

We can assume it applies even when the minority on a campus is white. Still, the likely elimination of DEI programs, may have a limited impact at FSU.

Fayetteville State, unlike UNC-Chapel Hill, N.C. State and other predominantly white schools in the system, does not have a DEI office or officers assigned to DEI, according to a report by the nonprofit James. G. Martin Center. The same applies to the state’s other public HBCUs in the system.

All the campuses in the system “have DEI aspirations laid out in their strategic plans,” however, the center report says.

A lack of a DEI office is not unusual for HBCUs. They are also absent in HBCU flagships like Howard University in D.C., Jackson State in Mississippi and Grambling State in Louisiana, as noted at City Journal. 

Part of the reason is history.

Historically Black schools have already been doing the work of DEI programs, writes Dr. Marcia Robinson in an article in HBCU News about the potential impact of anti-DEI sentiment on Black Americans seeking medical education and careers.

“HBCUs generally do not have DEI programs because — for almost two hundred years — they have been addressing the social issues that sparked the DEI movement in the first place,” she wrote.

Opinion Editor Myron B. Pitts can be reached at mpitts@fayoserver.com or 910-486-3559.

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: How will DEI elimination at UNC System affect Fayetteville State?