North Carolina Bans DEI at Public Colleges After Lawmakers Override Governor’s Veto

North Carolina has become the latest state to outlaw diversity, equity and inclusion programs at its public colleges and universities. On June 24, the Republican-led General Assembly overrode Democratic Gov. Josh Stein’s veto of Senate Bill 558 (PDF File), and the law took effect immediately as Session Law 2026-21.

What The Law Does

Public colleges in the state can no longer maintain DEI offices or employ DEI staff, and they are barred from endorsing what the law (PDF File) calls “divisive concepts.” Those include the ideas that a person is inherently privileged or oppressed because of their race or sex, that the United States was created to oppress a particular race or sex, or that “a series of power relationships and struggles” among groups has replaced the rule of law.

Schools also cannot require students to complete a course tied to divisive concepts in order to graduate. The law carves out an exception for requirements a chancellor deems necessary, but those decisions must be reported to the institution’s governing board.

The measure goes further on speech. Colleges are prohibited from investigating or reporting “offensive or unwanted speech that is protected by the First Amendment, including satire or speech labeled as microaggression.” Each institution must certify its compliance every year.

Why It Matters

North Carolina joins a wave of conservative states reshaping public higher education. Since 2023, roughly 17 states have enacted at least 33 laws restricting college DEI efforts, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. The state’s new law draws heavily on model policy language from the Goldwater Institute, a libertarian think tank, and cites President Donald Trump’s January 2025 executive order targeting DEI across colleges and other institutions.

The bill’s preamble frames DEI programs as forcing students to “judge others based on their race, sex, or other factors,” language that mirrors the national argument conservative lawmakers have used to dismantle these offices.

The Other Side

Stein, who vetoed the bill before the override, has cast diversity as a strength rather than a liability. In his veto message, he said the state should not “whitewash history, police dorm room conversations, or ban books,” and argued students benefit from learning across differing viewpoints. After the override, he accused legislators of “stoking the culture wars that divide us” instead of passing an overdue state budget.

Republicans also overrode Stein’s veto of a companion bill restricting DEI in K-12 schools, signaling the policy push spans the full education system.

How This Connects

The North Carolina law is the state-level echo of a federal campaign The College Investor has tracked closely. Trump’s education executive orders direct the Department of Education to ensure no federal funds support DEI activities and instruct accreditors to drop DEI standards, with institutions risking the loss of federal recognition and Title IV student aid eligibility if they don’t comply.

For the more than 240,000 students in the UNC system and the state’s community colleges, the combined federal and state pressure means the programs, course requirements and campus offices they encounter are changing fast and federal aid increasingly hinges on which side of the DEI line a school lands on.

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