University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: School of Medicine Conditions Tenure and Promotion on DEI Commitments

In fall 2020, the UNC School of Medicine announced recommendations from a social justice task force report conditioning tenure and promotion on faculty commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). A year later, the school’s Department of Allied Health Sciences (DAHS) announced recommendations from its own separate social justice task force report, independently conditioning faculty advancement on subscribing to DEI tenets. On April 7, 2023, FIRE wrote UNC explaining that neither the School of Medicine nor DAHS may condition faculty employment or advancement on pledging allegiance to a contested set of ideological beliefs. UNC said the recommendations were not and would not be implemented within DAHS specifically. After FIRE wrote back on June 7 to clarify the status of the School of Medicine broadly, UNC confirmed that the task force’s recommendations were not and would not be implemented there either.