Recent investigative reporting revealed that five UNC schools participated in a federal program explicitly created to hire faculty based on race. UNC should take steps to end these partnerships as soon as possible.

Last week in City Journal, Manhattan Institute senior fellow John Sailer published an investigative report on a DEI hiring program run out of the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) with three partner institutions. The $10-million “Re-Imagining STEM Equity Utilizing Postdoctoral Pathways” (RISE UPP) program is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Its purpose, Sailer reports, is to hire postdoctoral fellows, with special attention to diversity, and “fast-track them to tenure-track positions, sidestepping normal hiring procedures.”

The UNC Board of Governors approved a new policy Thursday for students who want to protest on any of its campuses.

They’ll have to reserve space to protest, and they can’t camp out. They can’t interfere with classes. Any protester who gets in trouble at one state campus can be punished at their home campus.

After several scholars with the UNC Press were prevented from travelling to the US to present recently published works at book events, the UNC Press is worried that the free speech rights of scholars could be under threat. In one such instance, UNC Professor Eric Muller had a book event, set to be held at the US Attorney’s Office in Washington, canceled. In an interview with WUNC, UNC Press Director John Sherer outlines the importance of academic freedom and open discourse on college campuses.