Another NC college busted for covert DEI work (06-12-2025--Hour1)

[00:00:04] What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to 3 on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to thepetekalendershow.com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button, get every episode for free, write your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support.

[00:00:29] I want to welcome back to the program Corey Valancourt. He is the politics editor at the Smoky Mountain News up in Western North Carolina. Corey, how are you doing, sir? Hey, Pete. Glad to be back. And just want to thank you and your listeners again for everything y'all did for us during Hurricane Helene eight months ago. We still remember and we won't forget.

[00:00:51] Well, we haven't forgotten you guys either. In fact, tomorrow I've got Shawn Hendricks coming on to give a status update on to as to their relief efforts. So how are things in your neck of the woods?

[00:01:02] You know, it's all relative, Pete. For some folks, it's like the storm never happened. And for other folks, obviously, it's still just a catastrophe that they've been living out for 250 days. So, you know, it's kind of a mixed bag. But really, for us in Haywood County and West, things are relatively normal. Is there a sense of any kind of optimism that things are improving?

[00:01:29] Certainly. But it's measured optimism and it's incremental. Every week or every month, a new bridge opens back up or a new business opens its doors again. So, you know, we're getting there. But as everyone has said for the past eight months, this is something we're going to be talking about for five years minimum, if not 10. And we're not even at the one year mark yet. So I think we've bounced back pretty good for only being eight months out, but certainly a long way to go.

[00:01:56] Yeah. And it is tourist season in full swing. And so anybody listening that is looking to spend tourism dollars someplace, please consider going up to the mountains and helping people with the local economy up there. They need it. I was up there last weekend and there are a lot of great places that are still intact. They are open. They are operating. You know, there are parks that are open and stuff.

[00:02:21] So it's not complete devastation everywhere. You can go up there and spend tourism dollars and have a really good time. So, Corey, let me ask you, though, you've got a story here at Smoky Mountain News. We've we started covering this, I guess, about two weeks ago when UNC Charlotte was first in the crosshairs of AIM, accuracy in media, pun intended, by the way.

[00:02:44] I'm a professional at this. Please don't attempt that at home. So then we we got the second drop of UNC Asheville. And now we've got Western Carolina that there was an administrator who was secretly recorded describing how the school is continuing to promote DEI or diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives,

[00:03:09] despite a ban that was enacted by the UNC Board of Governors last year. You actually talked to Adam Gillette as well. And I thought this was kind of interesting because there now seems to be this debate about undercover video and whether that's, you know, ethical journalism or not. And as a journalist yourself, I was kind of curious, do you have any thoughts about the use of undercover video tactics in order to get stories?

[00:03:35] Absolutely, Pete, I have thoughts. And the first thing that I thought when I thought of this was so I've done things like this twice. The first time was in 2022. I went to Ukraine and I wanted to get close to the front lines in the south in Harrison Oblast. And so I had to do that undercover. I'm not really going to talk about how it was done, but it was done. And you can read those stories and listen to some of the radio stuff I produced regarding that trip.

[00:04:02] But I was within less than a mile to the front lines. There was no other way for me to be able to get there and gather that information. The second time I did this was when the paper mill closed in Canton, the Pact of Evergreen paper mill. I got a tip that the company was calling some meetings, some very unusual meetings. And so I just went downtown Canton and blended in and looked around and followed a bunch of employees into a building.

[00:04:27] And I was the only one who got to actually sit there and listen and record what company officials told their workers. The common theme between Ukraine and Canton? I would not have been able to get that information any other way. I think Aime and Gillette's work is similar. In fact, he even told me he didn't think that if he just approached them, as journalists normally do,

[00:04:51] and say, hey, I've got some public records requests, I've got some interview requests, I want to sit down and talk about your DEI policy. He doesn't think that he would have gotten the information. So I understand why it might rub people wrong. But again, I won't hesitate to do undercover work with the caveat that there is no other way to get an honest representation of the information that you're seeking.

[00:05:15] I think that's a fair standard. I do. And I would agree with that, because, like you said, and like Gillette said, if he were to walk in there and say, hey, how are you guys, you know, using DEI stuff? And he's got cameras and he booked it as a media interview. They're going to give him the, you know, the PR answer. They're going to give him, oh, we're not doing it. We're following the law. It's not happening. But when you go in undercover, you find out, well, kind of, yeah, you may have moved some people around,

[00:05:44] but, you know, the people are still, you know, doing the work, as they like to say. They're just not, they're not doing it out in the open, and they know they can't because of the ban. And so this appears to me to be the only way that they could go about doing it. I agree 100%. I mean, it's clear, it really appears that they are actively trying to circumvent what the UNC Board of Governors dictated. I think it was last May, May or June of 2024.

[00:06:14] Some might call that compliance. You know, by the letter of the law, they've gotten rid of their DEI officer, and they don't have any official DEI programs, but some folks are carrying out this work as a part of their other duties. And at the end of my story, I believe it says something about how the UNC Board of Governors needs to clarify or determine whether or not this is okay. I mean, to be completely clear, Pete, I don't really care about the issue of DEI at this moment and not at Western.

[00:06:43] What I care about is a publicly funded institution following the rules that were set out by its governing board. Right. And in fact, to this point of whether or not you could actually get an honest answer if you went through official channels and such, you have a request or you made requests of the Chancellor, Kelly Brown, to do an interview.

[00:07:08] And they would not make Kelly Brown available for any kind of an interview, it sounds like. Do you have a good relationship with Western and Kelly Brown's office or Kelly Brown? Absolutely. We've had nothing but a great relationship with Western Carolina University for the entire 26-year existence of our newspaper. I've spoken with her many times. She seems to be a serious, dedicated woman, very pleasant to be around, you know.

[00:07:35] So it's not adversarial at all, but I was surprised that they walked right into Juliet's crap, where he says these people are unaccountable and when they get caught, they don't know what to say and they don't say anything. And then Kelly Brown's office turned right around and did exactly that. How so? I asked for an interview when this press release dropped on Tuesday night. I emailed them immediately and started talking to some of the communications people.

[00:08:04] And I always do this, Pete. It's one of the techniques that I use. I say, I want an interview. I want to speak with the person. And then they'll send me back a statement and then I'll reply and say, I'm so sorry for the confusion. I didn't ask for a statement. I asked for an interview. I will not be publishing your statement because last time I checked my mailbox, I didn't have any checks in there as your PR person.

[00:08:29] I'm not here to run your PR and you're not going to give me a statement that answers none of my questions. You're going to talk to me like a normal human being. And if you don't want to do that, well, it's on you. And in a case like this where they're basically being accused of not being transparent, this was the stupidest thing that they could have done. But they did it. Well, and you also have a pair of June 3rd emails that were sent by administrators to various Western Carolina University employees.

[00:08:58] But you got a hold of some of these emails and it the emails warned employees. So this is June 3rd. This is now what? Almost 10 days ago that warned employees against speaking to outsiders about DEI in light of the UNC Charlotte story. So they were aware that this was going on because of the UNCC story. Then I'm sure, you know, things got heightened when the UNC Asheville story dropped. And so they're telling their people don't talk to anybody about DEI stuff.

[00:09:28] And now apparently it had already occurred, I guess, because they already had the video. Yeah, that's right, Pete. So Juliet told me that they had filmed this, I believe. It was clearly before mid-April because the administrator in the video is no longer there. The job advertisement was posted for her position in mid-April. So they had been there. Certainly WC was aware of what happened.

[00:09:53] You know, Juliet is walking through the office talking to administrators, asking them questions about DEI. They're all refusing to comment. So I'm sure that they all sat down after that and put their heads together and said, what the hell just happened to us? And what is about to happen to us? And then they saw UNCC drop. And then they saw UNCA drop. And so they sent out these emails and said, oh, I think we know what's coming. And it's going to be another one of these undercover videos.

[00:10:21] And we're worried about what might happen. So direct all communication to the appropriate authorities so that they can refuse to talk to the media. Yeah, right. Exactly. It's don't anybody say anything. Tell them to talk to us where we won't say anything. That's right. Yeah. Not a great look. But this is, look, this has always been part of the problem with the DEI ban is that it didn't dismantle it. All right.

[00:10:46] It may have dismantled the offices by disbanding them and saying, OK, you can't do this as an office. Right. But they just reassigned the people. And the people who are in those offices are not going to have a change of heart about the importance of the work. They're going to find other ways to advance it undercover.

[00:11:05] And so, like, back to our original conversation, like, that's the only way you're going to get at this is because if they're going underground to continue the work, you have to go underground to follow them and catch them doing it. And so far, he's three for three. Or AIM is three for three on these. And he said he had like half a dozen UNC schools or North Carolina schools. Right. And my understanding is probably UNC Wilmington might be in the mix. But I don't know any others besides that.

[00:11:35] All right. Anything else? Yeah, go ahead. Yeah. There's actually an article in the Daily Tar Heel. I believe it was June 3rd or June 6th where they're talking. This is before the Western Carolina stuff dropped. But they're talking about AIM and what they've been doing. And there seems to be some suspicion that Chapel Hill may be in the mix or maybe next or somewhere down the road. And we haven't seen anything out of Chapel Hill yet. So I guess if you're a fan of this kind of work, stay tuned. Yeah, that's a good bet.

[00:12:04] I can't imagine they would not go to UNC Chapel Hill. No. No, no. Right. Okay. Corey, good to talk with you, sir. I appreciate your time. Keep up the good work. Corey Valancourt. He's the politics editor at the Smoky Mountain News. Thanks, buddy. Appreciate it. Always a pleasure, Pete. Bye-bye. See ya. Here's a great idea. How about making an escape to a really special and secluded getaway in Western North Carolina, just a quick drive up the mountain? And Cabins of Asheville is your connection.

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[00:13:22] And they have pet-friendly accommodations. Call or text 828-367-7068. Or check out all there is to offer at cabinsofashville.com and make memories that'll last a lifetime. Yeah, so a couple weeks ago we interviewed Adam Gillette from Accuracy in Media after they dropped their first undercover video sting operation at UNC Charlotte.

[00:13:47] Since then, they hit, well, they dropped video from UNC Asheville. And now, yesterday, they dropped, well, it may have been two days ago, but the reporting, yeah, it dropped on the 10th. Another video, this is out of Western Carolina University.

[00:14:09] And according to the Charlotte Observer, a new undercover video from an activist media organization purports to show a former administrator at Western Carolina University, quote, pushing diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts despite the UNC system repealing DEI programs last year. But the university is standing by its record regarding compliance with state and federal rules on DEI. What does that mean?

[00:14:38] It's standing by its record. What record? Because this is also part of the record now, and this would indicate that you're not in compliance. No, the university is saying we're not doing it. The university is denying that they're doing it. In initial comments about the matter sent to the news and observer, the university also said that the undercover interviewers did not present themselves to the administrator truthfully. Oh, no. Whoa, wait a minute.

[00:15:09] Are you suggesting that an undercover journalist posed as not a journalist in order to get you to speak honestly about what you were doing, knowing that you would not tell them honestly what you were doing if they presented themselves as a journalist? No, no. The university is pointing out that these undercover agents, these provocateurs, these saboteurs, they didn't say that.

[00:15:38] They just said that these journalists posed as, quote, students in distress who asked leading questions. So it's the journalist's fault that your administrator said, quote, we're trying to embed that kind of diversity, equity, inclusiveness, inclusive excellence. It's a new term. Really, across like every area should have responsibility for that.

[00:16:06] It shouldn't just be like an office or a figurehead. So the work is still occurring very much here at Western. You just might see it called different things. And so the undercover operative said, and if you embed it, it can't be legislated out. And the administrator, Karen Price, said, quote, there you go. Now you're understanding the strategy behind what it is.

[00:16:38] The real villain here, obviously, is the journalist. I think we can all agree. How dare they misrepresent themselves as a student in distress? I don't know what kind of distress. Like some like, oh, my gosh, there's all the DEI programs. I feel unsafe. Like that kind of distress. But then the Charlotte Observer piece, it's actually News and Observer, but it's McClatchy, and it was republished at the Charlotte Observer.

[00:17:01] They want to point out about the ethic, the ethical concerns regarding undercover journalism. This is a very important aspect of the story, according to McClatchy. All right. So spring is here, a time of renewal and celebrations. You got graduations, weddings, anniversaries, and the special days for mom and dad. Your family's making memories that are going to last a lifetime. But let me ask you, are all of those treasured moments from days gone by?

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[00:18:20] In a piece by Corey Dean at the Charlotte Observer, but it's also the News Observer, so Corey Dean may actually be out of the Raleigh office. But Corey Dean reports, generally it is considered unethical for journalists to report undercover. And I have to tell you, I am unaware of this general consideration.

[00:18:50] Like, I grew up with the, you know, major, like 2020, remember that, news magazine doing undercover videos and stuff? I remember watching media as a kid on the, you know, the nightly newscast and all of the news magazines, and they would do these undercover investigations. This was standard fare. Remember the Food Lion undercover expose?

[00:19:17] Remember where the 2020 guys, they blew up a Ford Explorer in order to try to convince people that these cars were blowing up? Remember that one? Okay, maybe that's not a great example. It really even wasn't undercover. Although I guess the planting of the explosives was undercover. But I was not aware that this is a general consideration, that generally it is considered unethical for journalists to report undercover.

[00:19:44] Because to me, that's just another way of getting information that you can't otherwise get, as Corey Valancourt pointed out. And he did not know I was going to ask him about that, because I'm reading this from the Charlotte Observer piece. The Smoky Mountain News piece doesn't cover this generally considered unethical standard.

[00:20:08] The Society of Professional Journalists, in its code of ethics, it does exist, people. I hear you laughing. There is actually an SPJ code of ethics. It suggests reporters should avoid undercover or other surreptitious methods of gathering information unless traditional open methods will not yield information vital to the public. Well, there you go. So why would you even put this into the story?

[00:20:37] A revised statement. So Western Carolina issued apparently two different statements in the first one. They were like, oh, they didn't present themselves truthfully. And then they revised the statement to take that out. Yeah, like that's because it's not a good look. You got caught when it well one person you had one administrator, Karen Price. She got caught. She was the director of institutional assessment at Western Carolina, and she is no longer there.

[00:21:06] She left back in April. But the way Western has handled this is not too good, not too great. OK. The director of this is what they said in a statement. 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. Now, that sentence sounds familiar. It's because that's almost exactly what the other university said, too.

[00:21:34] And it's a little too clever by half. It is it is it is answering a question that is not asked. Right. Right. This person has no role in policy decisions. Doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Compliance decisions doesn't matter because they're saying decisions as if like this person's in charge and directing others. That doesn't matter. Are they doing it? Are they themselves doing it?

[00:22:05] And then that she was not authorized to speak on behalf of the university doesn't matter. The question is, was she doing it? When students presented themselves and said, hey, are you still doing DEI stuff? I really, you know, would would really like I want to make sure that we're still doing DEI. Oh, yeah. Don't worry. We're still doing DEI. So either Karen Price was lying about that or the people that populated these DEI offices throughout the UNC system.

[00:22:33] And then got reshuffled into other departments are still doing the work. And I always say it like that. The work is because that's what they say. And they're just so tired of doing the work. We're out here doing the work every day. They're out doing the work and the work never ends. And the work shall set you free, according to Marxism. That's how you are set free is by doing the work. And so you always have to be doing the work.

[00:23:02] And if you are not actively doing the work, then you are part of the institutional systemic ism, whether it's, you know, racism, capitalism, whatever the issue of the day happens to be. Because remember, the issue is never the issue. The issue is always the revolution. You just swap out whatever issue is handy at the time, whichever one is making the headlines, whichever ones you can, you know, weaponize against your political opponents. The issue doesn't really matter. The issue is the revolution.

[00:23:32] And so you're always doing the work in order to achieve the perfected utopian society. In the Hegelian vision, Hegel, the philosopher. So that's where all of this stuff sort of comes from. So this statement doesn't really help much either. Corey Valancourt, he talked with Adam Gillette, who is from the Accuracy in Media.

[00:24:01] And he said, First off, hidden camera investigative journalism is by far the most honest form of journalism. When the New York Times quotes an anonymous source, quoting another anonymous source, we don't know if these people said the things that they supposedly have said. We don't even know if they exist. And before you think that can't happen, it has. Right? Go look up a movie called Broken Glass.

[00:24:30] Fantastic movie. It was a scandal about Stephen Glass, reporter at the New Republic, I believe it was. And he just fabricated stories and people and events. And one of his editors finally started, like, getting suspicious. And that's what blew the lid off the whole thing. When reporters quote people, we don't know exactly what the reporter was told. We don't know the context that it was told in.

[00:24:58] This has always been a beef of mine whenever they attack, like, James O'Keefe, and they're like, Oh, his videos are selectively edited. Every single news story is selectively edited. Every one of them. They have to be. Because you sit and do an interview with somebody for 10 or 15 minutes, but you only have a one-minute window to tell the story. So you selectively edit sound bites.

[00:25:25] And it's the job of the reporter to ensure that the sound bite that is selectively edited does not take the person out of context. And that's where your bias comes in. Right? A hidden camera, investigative journalism, shows people in their own words discussing exactly what's going on, he said. And he's exactly right. He's exactly right. All right, if you're listening to this show, you know I try to keep up with all sorts of current events. And I know you do, too.

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[00:26:46] Your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it also supports Ground News as they make the media landscape more transparent. The piece by Corey Valancourt at Smoky Mountain News, I think he did a good job doing the story. You don't know his view on DEI at all when he's telling the story. In the video, Karen Price is heard detailing how Western Carolina has adapted to the new political climate by decentralizing DEI responsibilities,

[00:27:14] repurposing roles, and dispersing funding more broadly throughout the university structure without formally violating the rules. Right? So this is an end run around the DEI ban. Charlotte Observer reports. The employee, Karen Price, has not been employed at Western Carolina since mid-April per the university. Initial comments from the university said Price retired at that time.

[00:27:44] Price is seen in the video making comments implying that while Western Carolina no longer has a DEI office or employees explicitly devoted to the efforts, the university is, quote, trying to embed DEI across the campus. Quote, the work is still occurring very much here at Western. You just might see it called different things.

[00:28:07] Now, do you think it's coincidence that so far all three of the administrators that have been caught on undercover video saying the exact same thing are saying the exact same thing? Do you think that that's a coincidence? Why are they all adopting the exact same strategy and saying the same thing at all these different college campuses?

[00:28:28] They go on to identify accuracy in media as, quote, known for its controversial and provocative tactics that in recent years have included displaying an image of Adolf Hitler raising his arm on a truck intended to denounce anti-Semitism?

[00:28:53] Well, I ask Adam Gillette about this very thing because you may recall when the college campuses first erupted in their Islamist slash Marxist tentifadas. And the campuses, the college administrators were either unwilling or unable to shut them down.

[00:29:16] They gave permission structures to these tentifada, Hamas holes to continue their harassment of Jewish students and the like.

[00:29:26] And what accuracy in media did was got some box trucks with the big video monitors on the sides of them, you know, and they they drove around with the people who were like the campus organizers, the campus leaders and stuff that were allowing this stuff to occur or were participating in the actions.

[00:29:50] And they drove these things around, calling them out for their anti-Semitism. That was the point. But you don't really get the full sense of what exactly that operation was about when you just read this sentence that, oh, it displayed an image of Adolf Hitler raising his arm, intended to denounce anti-Semitism. It's intended to denounce it. It did.

[00:30:18] It called out people by name. It doxed them. Publicly, parking in front of their home, saying, you got a guy here who's an anti-Semite. And then people were like, I can't believe you're doing this. That was the operation that they ran.

[00:30:37] The recordings came or come roughly a year after the UNC Board of Governors repealed a policy that mandated DEI programming and jobs across the state's 16 public universities and the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics. Across the system, nearly 60 DEI-related positions were eliminated. But more than 130, so more than double, were, quote, realigned or purged of their ties to DEI as a result of the repeal.

[00:31:07] Yeah, so you got 130 people that were hired to do DEI stuff that then got repurposed or realigned into different areas. Do you think that they have stopped the work? The policy change also resulted in universities closing DEI offices or units with similar purposes or names. But again, the people that got reassigned are continuing the work underground.

[00:31:38] They went underground to continue their DEI efforts. And they talk about it when they think there's no camera rolling. You put a mic in their face. No, no, no. We're in compliance. We're not doing any of that. We completely follow the law and the spirit of the law. And we're doing all of this stuff. Buy the book.

[00:32:00] The Observer story goes on to say at the end, at one point after Trump took office, Western Carolina removed diversity and inclusive excellence as a core value in its mission. But then restored the language after the News and Observer inquired about the change. So Western Carolina's got some problems going on. They don't know which way to break on this. They seem to be a bit confused. Right?

[00:32:31] Western, by the way, is also facing an investigation by the U.S. Department of Education over allegations that the university, quote, refused to comply with Title IX and to ensure sex-separated intimate spaces in federally funded institutions of higher learning. And we covered that a couple of weeks ago as well. This had to do with the trans issue. So Western has got some problems. All right. That'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening.

[00:32:59] I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast. So if you'd like, please support them, too, and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to thepetecalendershow.com. Again, thank you so much for listening. And don't break anything while I'm gone.