DOJ and Education Department Agreement With UNC-Chapel Hill Closes 18 Education Dept. Civil Rights Investigations and One DOJ Compliance Review, No Payment; "Color-Blind" Admissions Required

The Justice Department and the Education Department announced Monday a joint agreement with UNC-Chapel Hill. Under its close-out clause the signed agreement closes 18 Education Department OCR investigations plus one DOJ Civil Rights Division compliance review opened on April 18, 2025, one matter more than the 18. The DOJ release describes the same split: 18 active ED-OCR investigations and a separate Civil Rights Division review. WRAL counted only the 18. Editor’s note: the filename id is unchanged and carries the earlier count; the count here is 18 plus one. Editor’s note: the execution date is handwritten on the agreement and was not read. The agreement runs through December 31, 2028, and holds in abeyance all other investigations about pre-agreement conduct; those close at the end of the term if the United States finds UNC upheld the terms.

What the text says:

• Admissions: UNC adopts a “color-blind” admission system, as the Justice Department described it to WRAL.
• Administrator removal: UNC’s Chancellor selects the Merit & Civil Rights administrator, but removal requires approval of the Assistant Attorney General, and the Department may demand removal “in its sole discretion”. The administrator reports quarterly to the Assistant Attorney General.
• Data reporting: Reports go quarterly to the Education Secretary and the Assistant Attorney General, and the first reaches back to October 7, 2023. The Chancellor certifies each report “under penalty of perjury”.
• Masks: UNC must prohibit coverings “that function to conceal an individual’s identity”, and wearers must “present identification sufficient to establish their identity” when asked by an authorized University official or University Police Officer.
• Money and admission: The text has no payment term, and it says it is “not an admission”. UNC said the settlement neither admitted wrongdoing or liability nor made a monetary settlement payment. Bloomberg Law, quoted by TaxProf Blog, describes the deal as without adverse findings or penalty.

Correction (date in the corrected field of this entry): WRAL reported that the administrator would be “receiving quarterly reports” on complaints. The agreement sends those reports to the Secretary of Education and the Assistant Attorney General, not to the administrator. WRAL’s original wording is kept here for the record.

Context: WRAL notes it is unclear who would define antisemitism for discipline purposes or how the mask ban would be enforced. WRAL also reports a Title VI coordinator and a 30-day window for the administrator. Related: 2026-03-20–doj-sues-harvard-antisemitism-billions, 2025-12-09–doj-eliminates-disparate-impact-civil-rights-protections.