UNC Board of Governors: Stop your efforts to eliminate, consolidate or cut funding for UNC-System Research and Advocacy Centers.

North Carolinians are lucky to have many campus-based research and advocacy centers that work to make our campuses and our state a place where gender, race, sexuality and other identities are addressed, allowing for a safe space for people with different identities to rely on.

But these centers are under attack.

The members of the University of North Carolina’s Board of Governors are appointed and do not reflect the diversity of ideas in our system. It announced Friday, December 5th that it has chosen 34 centers for review, with the possibility of closing, consolidating or slashing funding from this week.

The centers at risk include the Carolina Women’s Center; Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History; N.C. Center for Biodiversity; Rural Education Institute; and the Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity. The full list is below.

This defunding effort is a targeted attack by the UNC Board of Governors on the institutions that are making North Carolina a better place to live for all of us.

Please sign this petition urging the UNC Board of Governors to end their efforts to eliminate, consolidate or cut funding for these programs. To save them, we need your support.

 Full list of Centers and Institutes under review:

• Appalachian State University: Brantley Risk and Insurance Center; Center for Economic Research and Policy Analysis; Research Institute for Environment, Energy and Economics
• East Carolina University: Center for Applied Computational Studies; Center for Diversity and Inequality Research; Center for Health Systems Research and Development; Center for Natural Hazards Mitigation Research; N.C. Agromedicine Institute; N.C. Center for Biodiversity; Rural Education Institute
• Elizabeth City State University: Drug Information Center
• N.C. A&T State University: Center for Cooperative Systems; Center for Human Machine Studies*
• N.C. Central University: Institute for Civic Engagement and Social Change; Juvenile Justice Institute
• N.C. State University: Institute for Emerging Issues
• UNC-Chapel Hill: Carolina Center for Public Service; Carolina Women’s Center; Center for Faculty Excellence; Center for Law and Government; Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity; James B. Hunt, Jr. Institute for Educational Leadership and Policy; Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History; UNC Center for Civil Rights; University of North Carolina Institute on Aging
• UNC Greensboro: Center for Creative Writing in the Arts; Center for Educational Research and Evaluation; Center for New North Carolinians; Center for Social, Community and Health Research and Evaluation
• UNC Wilmington: Swain Center for Business and Economic Services
• Western Carolina University: Cherokee Center at WCU; Public Policy Institute
• Winston-Salem State University: Center for Community Safety; Center for Economic Analysis