The Upperman family announced it will move an endowed $1 million scholarship currently at the University of North Carolina Wilmington rather than revise scholarship language to comply with UNC system anti-DEI rules. A UNC Wilmington legal review previously flagged the scholarship’s requirement for “special consideration” for students with experience in or commitment to working with the African American community. UNC Wilmington leaders asked Linda Upperman Smith to remove the clause, but she said she would not agree to the change and instead plans to shift the endowment to a “DEI-friendly” institution. Smith indicated that Howard University is among the options under consideration. The scholarship distributes about 4% of its value (roughly $40,000) annually, and the family said remaining scholarship recipients will continue receiving awards until graduation under existing terms. The decision underscores how system-level DEI compliance rules can affect not just new funding but also long-standing private endowments—shifting donor intent into institution-by-institution and case-by-case legal negotiation.