Straws in the Wind - Part 252

From Inside Higher Ed: North Carolina State University fired the assistant director of its LGBTQ Pride Center on Friday after an anti-DEI activist group secretly recorded him appearing to violate system policies... Employees who were secretly recorded by Accuracy in Media at the University of North Carolina campuses in Charlotte and Asheville and Western Carolina University no longer work at those institutions.

“We’re still able to do the things that we want to do, have these events and programs. We have to be a little more careful,” Jae Edwards, the N.C. State employee, was recorded saying. “It’s been very interesting navigating now that there’s certain words we can’t use anymore … ’cause things like ‘equity’ implies inequities,” he said. “As a marginalized group, we’re used to these things, and we’re used to going around them and finding ways around.”

A spokesperson for the university told the News & Observer the institution was made aware of the video on Thursday, Feb. 5. “The individual seen in the video had no role in policy or compliance decisions and was not authorized to speak on behalf of the university,” the spokesperson said. “The staff member no longer works at the university..." 

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2026/02/09/nc-state-fires-secretly-recorded-lgbtq-pride-employee.

New University Librarian

From the Bruin: Former UCLA director of library special collections Athena Jackson will be the next Norman and Armena Powell University Librarian, UCLA announced Thursday. Jackson will start in the role March 1, succeeding Virginia Steel – who had occupied the position since 2013, according to an announcement from Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Darnell Hunt. Jackson previously served as director of library special collections at UCLA beginning in 2019 before becoming the dean of libraries and Elizabeth D. Rockwell Chair at the University of Houston in 2021. 

Jackson was also previously the Dorothy Foehr Huck Chair and head of the Eberly Family Special Collections Library at Penn State University, a special collections librarian at the University of Miami, the coordinator of the North Carolina Newspaper Digitization Project and an archivist at the North Carolina State Archives.  She earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Houston and received a Master of Science in library and information science from the University of North Texas. Jackson is also involved in scholarship dialogues through member organizations of the University of Houston such as the Association of Research Libraries, the Council on Library and Information Resources and the Texas Digital Library...

Full story at https://dailybruin.com/2024/01/25/ucla-appoints-athena-jackson-as-norman-and-armena-powell-university-librarian.