North Carolina’s legislature enacted a new ban on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at public colleges, making it the latest state to restrict DEI staffing and activities on campus. The measure took effect immediately after the governor’s veto was overridden, limiting DEI offices or employees and prohibiting colleges from endorsing what the law calls “divisive concepts.” The new law also blocks graduation requirements tied to courses related to those concepts, while allowing the chancellor to approve exceptions case-by-case and report decisions to the governing board. Institutions must certify compliance annually. The same regulatory and political pressure continues to ripple through how states describe and defend programs for students protected under federal civil-rights requirements, including multilingual learners. Higher education systems are now operating under tighter governance constraints as states align to anti-DEI interpretations while still navigating federal compliance obligations.