Happy graduation season! While I couldn’t find any commencement speakers quite as anticipated as Kermit the Frog at the University of Maryland, North Carolina colleges still have an impressive line-up.

Gov. Josh Stein will speak at Appalachian State University, Western Carolina University, and Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College to honor graduates’ “determination and grit” following Hurricane Helene. Durham Mayor Leo Williams will address graduates at Shaw University and North Carolina Central University. Paul Tazewell, who recently won an Academy Award for his costume designs in “Wicked,” will speak at the UNC School of the Arts. And Mia Hamm, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and former U.S. women’s national soccer team player, will take the mic at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Hats off to the class of 2025 (and to you all for making it through this wild academic year)!


—Erin Gretzinger

📚 Today’s Syllabus

1. The UNC-CH archivists protecting research data
2. How UNC schools have defined DEI-related content in major requirements
3. A dispatch from St. Andrews University’s last graduation
4. Gain-of-function research cuts and other stories we’re reading*|IF:HIGHED_TR=expired|*

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READ: “Long Live the Archives”
READ: “Saying Goodbye to St. Andrews” *|END:IF|*

Into the Dataverse

Saving data sounds simple enough—just click the little floppy disk icon, right?—but it gets messy at a modern university. Where did the old lab manager store those research files? How many staff have spent an hour trying to convert some outdated file type to find student records? How many emails have been sent searching for that one survey the university definitely did a decade ago?

It’s all a headache at best. But when the federal government starts removing from public view decades-old datasets that researchers across the country depend on, it turns into something else entirely.

That happened in February, when various data repositories started going offline under the Trump administration. Luckily, in trying to solve the ordinary data problems, UNC-Chapel Hill had built the infrastructure to help with the extraordinary one.

Meet the archivists tasked with protecting research data.

Long Live the Archives

–Matt Hartman

Thanks for reading The Quad, a higher education newsletter written by Matt Hartman and Erin Gretzinger and edited by Emily Stephenson. Reach us with tips or ideas at highered@theassemblync.com.

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What’s in a Waiver?

After the University of North Carolina System suspended general education and major-specific requirements that mandated courses related to diversity, equity, and inclusion, multiple schools cut gen-ed requirements. But what the directive meant for various majors was unclear. 

“The piece about major requirements was the greatest concern to faculty,” Faculty Assembly chair Wade Maki told The Assembly. “The ability to determine what curriculum was required for a major was taken away from the faculty who have doctoral degrees in that subject.”

While the system offered no exceptions for gen-ed requirements, chancellors could approve waivers exempting degree requirements that necessitate “substantially related” DEI content. The system did not define DEI-related content. Instead, it pointed to an executive order from President Donald Trump that broadly called for the elimination of “DEI principles … under whatever name they appear” and the system’s equality policy.

The Board of Governors will begin to review waivers at its meetings next week, a spokesperson for the system office said. They do not have the power to veto waivers approved by chancellors, the spokesperson said.

Documents obtained by The Assembly show how part of the waiver process played out at UNC-Chapel Hill. Provost Chris Clemens (who will soon leave the role) told all the university’s deans in early March to review required courses for their degree programs and report back to him. The Assembly asked 15 deans for their responses. 

Aimee Wall, the dean of the school of government, requested three waivers for the school’s master of public administration program, including courses titled “Foundations of Public Administration,” “Organizational Theory,” and “Public Service Leadership.” Wall cited specific lessons, such as a week focused on “Ethics and Values” that included discussions about the role of equity in public administration and concepts such as the “three Es” of “efficiency, effectiveness, and equity.”

Wall also pointed to accreditation standards as a justification for keeping the courses. She said the curriculum encourages students to “analyze and engage with different viewpoints” but does not expect them “to adopt a singular approach to issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion.”

Another dean also referenced accreditation requirements—but concluded that meant he didn’t need a waiver. Martin Brinkley, dean of the law school, wrote that its required classes were necessary for the school to maintain accreditation and prepare students for the bar exam.

“To the extent that the eight required courses contain any subject matter related to diversity, equity or inclusion, such subject matter involves elements of cultural competency necessary for admission to the profession and legal practice,” Brinkley wrote.

Most other deans did not respond to The Assembly’s request or referred it to UNC-CH media relations. Kevin Best, the director of media relations, said the university was still evaluating waiver needs as of the end of April. He said the provost’s request was part of a larger review, and no final decisions were made at that time.

Based on conversations with faculty and administrators across the UNC System, Maki said some deans and department chairs have decided to turn required classes into electives. He has also talked with faculty who have changed parts of their courses, including titles and descriptions. Maki said multiple schools sought waivers for social work programs due to accreditation requirements, and he’s also heard of some counseling, women’s studies, and education programs that wanted waivers.

“There were disagreements among faculty [about] do you want to get a waiver, or do you not want to get a waiver? Meaning, if I seek a waiver, am I a target?” Maki said. “Or is it better to get one, just in case somebody later decides that something we’re doing is objectionable?”

—Erin Gretzinger

A Send-Off for St. Andrews

Following St. Andrews University’s abrupt closure announcement, dozens of alumni converged on the Laurinburg campus for its 127th and final graduation ceremony. The next day, the private university officially closed its doors.

As Ben Rappaport writes for Border Belt Independent and The Assembly, the ceremony felt more like a funeral.

“The bells may no longer ring, and our buildings may grow quiet,” St. Andrews President Tarun Malik told the crowd at graduation. “But the spirit of St. Andrews endures—steadfast, proud and eternal.”

Read the full dispatch on St. Andrews’ final hours. 

—Ben Rappaport

Assigned Reading

Gutting Gain-of-Function: President Trump issued an executive order on Monday restricting funding for gain-of-function research. As we previously reported, UNC-CH virologist Ralph Baric’s Covid-19 research was the epicenter of a debate surrounding the scientific method that involves altering organisms to give them abilities they wouldn’t have in nature.

A UNC-CH spokesman told The Quad the school was monitoring the situation and waiting for guidance from the federal government: “It is too early to determine any potential impact on staffing or University operations.”

A ‘Patriotic Bargain’ Argument: UNC System President Peter Hans published an op-ed in Public Ed Works defending federal funding for research. Writing that open-minded exploration was “a fundamentally American value,” Hans argued that universities must resist internal and external ideological pressures.

Suspended With Perks: The News & Observer reported that after UNC-CH basketball player Zayden High was suspended for sexual misconduct, he retained access to athletic facilities, raising questions about how the university enforced sanctions. The N&O was also denied access to High’s sexual misconduct records despite a state Supreme Court ruling that made such documents public records. Now, a new state law seeks to supersede that ruling and keep such records sealed.

Let us know what’s on your radar at highered@theassemblync.com.

Matt Hartman is a higher education reporter for The Assembly and co-anchor of our weekly higher education newsletter, The Quad. He was previously a longtime freelance journalist and spent nearly a decade working in higher ed communications before joining The Assembly in 2024.

Erin Gretzinger is a former higher education reporter at The Assembly and co-anchor of our weekly higher education newsletter, The Quad. She was previously a reporting fellow at The Chronicle of Higher Education and is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin at Madison.