Keisha Jones provides something of a local- and state-level version of Education for All: She has dual posts as vice president of student affairs and chief diversity officer at Davidson Davie Community College in Lexington, North Carolina, as well as state director of inclusive excellence for the North Carolina Community College System.
State legislation in North Carolina, an amendment to the state’s Human Resources Act (Session Law 2023-62), has limited what community colleges (and other employers) can ask about social or political views during the hiring process. It lists 13 concepts that cannot be promoted in professional development — most of which aren’t concepts two-year colleges would want to promote, anyway, Jones says.
Related article: …and Education for All
Nevertheless, the University of North Carolina system has disbanded DEI offices across its campuses by decree of its Board of Regents, not directly due to the legislation, Jones says. But from the community college perspective, “I still go on campuses and do workshops about diversity, equity and inclusion,” she says. Among other provisions, “You can’t require or say that people should feel guilt, anguish or distress because of their race or their sex. But it’s not to say that you can’t have those [DEI] conversations.”
In her statewide role, Jones provides workshops and a toolkit for how colleges can navigate DEI efforts.
“We understand what the spirit of the creation of the law was, and so we are obligated to operate in that spirit,” she says. “In partnership with the system office attorney, I did several workshops for the system, for VPs, for the chief administrative and academic officers. … For us, it’s: ‘OK, this is what it is. You can’t change it at this point, and we have to abide by it.’ So, what are we going to do? How are we going to manage that, while still — the term that we like to use is — creating culturally sustaining environments?”
Understand the legislation…
That can be tricky, especially in heavily White, rural areas, Jones acknowledges. She asks herself, “How do I tell the story in a way that ties and links to the population or the group I’m trying to work with, so that they understand the purpose and the intent behind the work?” she says. “How do I align, still keeping with the premise and the work that I’m trying to do, but educate them in a way that they can buy in?”
Jones hopes that by doing so, she can avoid a scenario where colleges in such areas are too afraid to do anything.
“I do think a lot of legislation has brought about this icing effect,” she says. “Instead of embracing the fear, try to intentionally understand the legislation — what does the legislation mean? And then how do I begin to integrate that into my structures in a way that … you’re still able to move the work forward.”
…and communicating
That typically involves communicating clearly to the entire college and surrounding community what DEI work intends to do and why it’s important, Jones says. On her own campus, when the legislation passed, Jones sent an e-mail campus-wide and explained what it did and didn’t do, and how it would impact Davidson Davie’s DEI initiatives.
“We didn’t let people try to figure it out themselves or determine what they were going to do,” Jones says, explaining that she held information sessions to answer questions and provide clarity. That included providing a form for questions that might require more research, such as whether certain programs are out of alignment with the legislation.
Jones doesn’t believe the legislation has led to radical changes in how two-year colleges go about DEI work. Probably the most significant impact was the need to remove DEI-related questions from the job interview process.
“It didn’t say we had to change titles. It didn’t say that we couldn’t say certain words,” Jones says. “It didn’t say that we couldn’t say ‘diversity, equity and inclusion.’ It didn’t take away the many student success initiatives,” she says, observing that state lawmakers still fund programs such as the Minority Male Success initiative.
