UNH's $212K DEI Director Out, But Race-Based Policies May Remain

By Michael Graham, NH Journal

She survived years of tight budgets, legislative action, and presidential executive orders, but the University of New Hampshire’s $212,000 DEI officer is finally on her way out.

The question now is whether the UNH administration will continue to push for the race-based policies and practices that are unpopular with the voters and — more importantly — the legislators who oversee their funding.

In a letter to students and faculty, UNH President Elizabeth Chilton announced that Dr. Nadine Petty will be leaving at the end of the year.

“Since joining UNH in 2020, Dr. Petty has helped strengthen the university’s commitment to an inclusive, equitable, and respectful campus community,” Chilton wrote.

Chilton’s letter didn’t mention federal and state laws mandating an end to the so-called “diversity, equity, and inclusion” policies Petty was hired to oversee. Instead, Chilton said Petty and her husband will “relocate to be closer to family outside of New England.”

When Petty was hired in 2020, it was as “chief diversity officer and associate vice president for community, equity and diversity.”

When she leaves, however, it will be as “associate vice president for community, civil rights, and compliance.” No mention of DEI.

Petty has not been shy about touting her mission. In a 2021 video presentation, she urged participants to read “How to Be an Antiracist” by controversial author Ibram X. Kendi. Kendi is best known for advocating that institutions discriminate against White people in order to bring about “antiracist” racial justice.

“The only remedy to racist discrimination is antiracist discrimination,” Kendi famously said.

In her presentation, Petty repeatedly quoted Kendi and his “antiracist” strategies. She also openly discussed her goal of “diversity hiring” that would exclude people based on race.

Since Republicans took control of the state legislature in the 2020 election, they’ve been passing laws designed to defund race and sex based DEI practices and remove the ideology from government institutions.

A 2024 NHJournal review estimated funding for the various DEI programs across New Hampshire’s higher education institutions at between $6 and $9 million. An estimated $2 million was UNH funding.

“Members have long been asking for a breakdown of DEI funding for the University Systems and have yet to receive an adequate answer. Hearing that UNH alone spends roughly $2 million on DEI, clearly intervention is required,” House Majority Leader Jason Osborne said at the time.

GOP legislative leaders repeatedly warned UNH that if it continued to spend money on DEI programming while cutting spending elsewhere, lawmakers would remember when it came time to pass a budget.

True to their word, the budget Gov. Kelly Ayotte signed last year cut state funding to the University System of New Hampshire (USNH)—which includes UNH, Plymouth State, and Keene State— from roughly $95 million per year to $87 million in fiscal year 2026 and $77 million in fiscal year 2027.

That budget also included legislation restricting DEI “initiatives, programs, training, or policies” in all public entities.

Soon after, UNH scrubbed DEI language from some of its websites and gave Petty her new diversity-free title.

“The legislature has made it clear: taxpayer dollars should not be used to push divisive ideologies,” said Rep. Sam Farrington (R-Rochester), who is also a UNH student.

“The university system continues to defy the laws that have been passed, while also complaining about a decrease in state funding. It’s good news that UNH’s DEI officer is leaving, and I hope that the position is permanently abolished.”

But will it be? In her letter, Chilton suggested she plans to find ways to keep the ideology alive on campus.

“This transition provides an opportunity to reimagine how to best continue to promote equity and belonging across the university. To that end, we are evaluating roles within both the Beauregard Center, under Student Life, and Academic Affairs to allow us to transfer priority initiatives and responsibilities to these units.”

The Beauregard Center’s full title is “The Aulbani J. Beauregard Center for Equity, Justice, and Freedom.” Before the new budget took effect, UNH identified it as “an intersectional student support and community space.”

That language has been stripped from the website.

A federal judge issued an injunction against New Hampshire enforcing its anti-DEI law last October. However, in a separate legal action, a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned an injunction against major elements of President Trump’s anti-DEI executive orders.

This story was originally published by the NH Journal, an online news publication dedicated to providing fair, unbiased reporting on, and analysis of, political news of interest to New Hampshire. For more stories from the NH Journal, visit NHJournal.com.