Another UNC system administrator gets caught on camera defending efforts to protect DEI

Another North Carolina university administrator has been caught on camera describing efforts to keep Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) intact on campus. 

Accuracy in Media released a video on June 10, revealing Karen Price, the director of institutional assessment at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, saying that there is a “strategy” to “embed” DEI in the institutional framework of the university so that lawmakers “can’t legislate it away.”

In comments provided to Campus Reform by email, the university says that Price has not worked for the school since mid-April, which, according to Accuracy in Media President Adam Guilette, was soon after the video was recorded.

“It’s clear that higher education has been captured by ideological radicals,” Guilette told Campus Reform earlier this week. “These universities need major reform, starting with their leadership.”

“I visited the campus and confronted staffers in early April,” he continued. “Within two weeks, Ms. Price was no longer employed by the university.”

[RELATED: Harvard Medical School rebrands DEI office to ‘Culture and Community Engagement’]

Price made her comments not knowing that she was being secretly recorded. “We’re trying to embed that kind of diversity, equity, inclusiveness, inclusive excellence, really across ... every area should have responsibility for that,” Price responded to a prompt not included in the video.

She went on to explain that if DEI is not explicitly mentioned in an office or title, it can remain undetected by legislators.

“It is easier for them to be like, well, you need to get rid of that position because it has that niche title,” she says in the video. “Well, if we don’t create titles, and that it’s more just the work you do, and it’s part of everything that should be centered on just being, living your mission … That you’re right, you can’t legislate it away. You can’t take away positions.”

In comments to Campus Reform, the university reiterated its commitment to abide by anti-DEI directives from the board of governors. It also said that Price did not speak for the university in the video.

“Western Carolina University complies fully with the spirit and letter of all state and federal laws and UNC System policies on equality and institutional neutrality,” a spokesman for the school told Campus Reform. 

“The director of institutional assessment, featured in the video, has no role in policy or compliance decisions and was not authorized to speak on behalf of the university,” he added. “As of mid-April, Dr. Price is no longer employed at WCU. Further, in 2024, WCU dissolved its diversity, equity, and inclusion office in compliance with UNC Policy directives.”

[RELATED: Ohio State removes LGBTQ page amid state DEI restrictions from Senate Bill 1]

This is the second UNC system administrator the group has recently recorded claiming that DEI is not dead on campus and that rebranding does not mean a change in substance. 

“We’ve renamed, we’ve reorganized, we’ve recalibrated so to speak,” former Assistant Director of Leadership and Community Engagement Janique Sanders at UNC Charlotte said in a video released last month. The university fired Sanders a few weeks later.

The University of North Carolina system has been backing away from institutional DEI over the past year. 

In May 2024, the board of governors voted to remove its DEI policy altogether. Later that year, the board moved to eliminate all DEI positions and offices across the university system.