Sarah Edwards, Senior Associate General Counsel, will host a session Apr. 25 to provide information and address questions regarding recent changes to UNC Policy Manual 300.5.1 dealing with Political Activities of Employees.
The session is scheduled from 12:00-12:45 p.m. and participants may join live in Reese Building Rm. 524C or via Google Meet.
Please register to attend using the Graduate School’s registration form.
Following is information from a Sarah Edwards memo that is pertinent to the information session:
On March 8, 2023, Vice Chancellor for Institutional Integrity and General Counsel Jesh Humphrey issued a memorandum regarding the Board of Governors’ recent revisions to UNC Policy Manual 300.5.1 Political Activities of Employees. That memo is attached here for your reference.
Based on some questions and feedback from you all, I would like to provide some additional guidance specifically related to graduate admissions:
Solicited statements, including essay prompts and interview questions, should be centered on competencies rather than commitments, beliefs, or ideologies. For example, the following questions or prompts do not violate the new policy:
o What is your experience and comfort level working or interacting with individuals of varying ages, races, ethnicities, backgrounds, identities, and abilities?
o What tools would you use to engage with a classmate or prospective client whose background or experience differs significantly from yours?
o Please share any experience that demonstrates you possess the awareness, attitude, knowledge, and skills necessary to engage and include individuals of varying ages, races, ethnicities, backgrounds, identities, and abilities.
o UNC Charlotte is committed to engaging, including, and eliminating barriers for students, faculty, and staff of different ages, races, ethnicities, backgrounds, identities, and abilities. Provide an example of a barrier that you have overcome in your life or that you have assisted someone else in overcoming.
Utilizing an accrediting body’s standards to evaluate graduate students continues to be permissible. To the extent possible, the accreditation standards should be expressed as competencies, not as commitments, beliefs, or advocacy efforts.
A graduate program may continue to express its own commitment to certain values on its website or other publicly facing media.
Graduate programs may continue to consider or evaluate unsolicited and voluntary statements made by applicants during the admissions process.
Graduate programs may continue to target their recruitment efforts to solicit applicants from a variety of backgrounds.
As a reminder, the U.S. Constitution continues to prohibit public universities from making admissions decisions based solely or primarily on an applicant’s protected status (e.g. race, gender, nationality, religion). In addition to that, the U.S. Supreme Court is currently considering whether to prohibit any use of race, and possibly other protected statuses, in admissions decisions. The Court’s decision is likely to be released in June 2023.
Feel free to reach out to Sarah Edwards (sarah.edwards@uncc.edu) from the Office of Legal Affairs if you have specific questions or concerns related to your graduate program, and/or Johnna Watson (jwwatson@uncc.edu) in the Graduate School.
