A couple days ago I highlighted an undercover video put together by Accuracy in Media. In the video, an undercover reporter talks with an employee at UNC Charlotte named Janique Sanders whose title is assistant director of leadership and community engagement.
With just a bit of prompting, Sanders explains that while DEI language at UNC is now forbidden, she is still able to do the same sort of work using “finesse” and by working covertly. Here’s a bit of that.
The administrator whispers and jokes about how she isn’t supposed to say that DEI is still happening at the university.
She says “We’ve renamed, we’ve reorganized, we’ve recalibrated so to speak.” pic.twitter.com/iYDXqCtytS
— Corey A. DeAngelis, school choice evangelist (@DeAngelisCorey) May 28, 2025
Why is this a problem at UNC? Because last May the UNC Board of Governors voted to end DEI on campus. So this isn’t a new policy it’s a year-old policy and still this person is clearly just carrying on with DEI efforts anyway. So when the group confronted a provost about this, she just walked away and refused to say anything.
Undercover journalist: “What do you say to the taxpayers who don’t want DEI at their publicly funded universities?”
No response. Runs away. pic.twitter.com/eY6nhTRUZX
— Corey A. DeAngelis, school choice evangelist (@DeAngelisCorey) May 28, 2025
But two days later UNC has announced that Janique Sanders is out of a job.
UNC Charlotte says an administrator is “no longer employed” after a video went viral of her implying work related to diversity, equity and inclusion was still happening on campus…
Sanders was an assistant director of the UNC Charlotte Office of Leadership and Community Engagement. It’s unclear whether she was fired or resigned, and university officials declined to comment further, as it pertained to “personnel matters.”
But officials said that Sanders’ comments do not reflect the stance of the university.
“The employee’s statements were inaccurate and do not reflect the University’s actions,” UNC Charlotte Deputy Chief Communications Officer Christy Jackson told The Charlotte Observer Thursday afternoon. “The individual featured in the video had no policy-making authority, no role in compliance matters and was not authorized to speak on these issues. Following an internal review, the individual is no longer employed by UNC Charlotte.”
It’s difficult to believe no one working with Sanders caught on to what she was doing prior to this week. She obviously wasn’t hiding it very well. My own guess is that her supervisors knew and winked at her use of “finesse” to get around the rules. I suspect they had a quiet conversation about it at some point where it was agreed that as long as the forbidden words weren’t mentioned she could carry on with whatever she wanted to do. But no one is going to admit that now that the heat is on. So Sanders is out of a job and everyone else will remain silent and hope things go back to normal.
The school did release a statement promising to investigate but I’m not holding my breath.
UNC Charlotte takes the statements and assertions made by the former employee seriously. The University, led by the Division of Student Affairs in partnership with the Office of Legal Affairs, will conduct a swift and thorough review to ensure all employees understand and are adhering to applicable policies and laws.
I’ll be shocked if they come back with a finding that this sort of dishonest rebranding is rampant (which it certain is) and announce that 10 more people have been fired. That’s not going to happen. Instead, under the guise of an investigation they’ll quietly remind everyone what can happen when you speak the truth to strangers and that’ll be the end of it. The rebranding effort will continue.
