UNC Charlotte Employee Fired for DEI Comments Files Federal Suit

A woman who was fired from her position at UNC Charlotte in May after being filmed making comments involving DEI has filed a federal lawsuit against the university and two staff members, claiming discrimination and the violation of her First Amendment rights.

Attorneys representing Janique Sanders, former assistant director of the UNC Charlotte Office of Leadership and Community Engagement, filed the suit on Monday, stating that Sanders was targeted by the right-wing group and wrongfully terminated by the university’s Associate Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Karen Shaffer and Executive Director of Student Affairs Frank Fleming. 

Sanders was fired on May 29 after a group called Accuracy in Media (AIM) released footage of her speaking about ways to work around a recently announced DEI ban across the UNC system, then recorded her saying that there were “covert … opportunities” to continue doing the work for those willing to “finesse” the language around it.

AIM released the video on May 28 and UNC Charlotte responded the next day, announcing that Sanders’ statements were “inaccurate and do not reflect the University’s actions” before announcing her firing.

“Janique Sanders didn’t violate a single policy at UNC Charlotte,” stated Artur Davis, one of Sanders’ attorneys with HKM Employment Attorneys LLP. “She simply expressed her personal opinion that diversity, equity and inclusion remain important. That is free speech guaranteed protection by the same constitution that protects AIM.

“The ugly reality is that Ms. Sanders was targeted because she provided a Black female image for an agenda that questions Black and female talent,” Davis continued. “Instead of defending one of its own stars, UNCC bowed to bigotry and the threat of political backlash.”

The lawsuit points out that Sanders never spoke to any internal investigator nor was she ever given specific ground for her firing. The lawsuit also asserts that UNC Charlotte officials have never sought nor viewed the entirety of AIM’s recording.

Furthermore, the lawsuit claims that, in response to the UNC Board of Governors’ new anti-DEI mandate, the leadership of Sanders’ department had “expressed their goal to preserve core aspects of its prior mission.” 

In Sanders’ case, while she was no longer permitted to act as a liaison to campus groups based on social or ethnic identity, she was permitted to continue off-campus collaboration with organizations that aligned with social justice and to devote time and resources to subjects of economic empowerment and civic dialogue, the lawsuit insists. 

“The very idea that Sanders’ statements are scandalous is absurd. She should be applauded for her commitment to UNC Charlotte’s students,” wrote Queen City Nerve contributor Cecilia Whalen in an op-ed titled “I’m Ashamed To Be a UNC Charlotte Graduate” a few days following the firing.

“Only a few years ago, while I was a student during the Black Lives Matter movement, numerous university departments published statements of solidarity with the university’s Black students and the movement for progressive change,” Whalen wrote. “The administration itself enthusiastically supported DEI … Not anymore; intentional care for Black and minority students evidently is no longer the university’s platform.”

Sanders is seeking economic damages against UNC Charlotte, Shaffer and Fleming including back pay, front pay, lost benefits, compensatory damages, and court costs. 

What the lawsuit says

The lawsuit lays out a timeline of events, stating that AIM filmed its “sting video” in fall 2024. This came about six months after the May 2024 repeal of the UNC system’s DEI policy. AIM released the footage six months after filming it, in May 2025. 

The lawsuit also paints a picture of a changing political climate before the firing, one that saw “an umbrella of DEI initiatives” emerge after the murder of George Floyd and others at the hands of police and the resulting Black Lives Matter protests of 2020. 

“For a brief season, the UNC system’s DEI agenda was a subject of bipartisan and corporate praise and aligned with a national trend of expanding closed circles of leadership,” the lawsuit read. “The tide moved dramatically in a different direction in 2023 and 2024 in North Carolina and the country.” 

Following US Supreme Court decisions and lawsuits challenging DEI policies across the country, the UNC Board of Governors voted to repeal its own DEI policy, replacing it with a stance of “institutional neutrality” regarding the value of racial diversity. 

UNC Charlotte’s office of Identity, Equity, and Engagement, where Sanders worked as assistant director of experiential and equity initiatives, was disbanded and Sanders was named the assistant director of civic engagement and experiential learning in the newly formed Center for Leadership and Community Engagement. 

Sanders was working in this capacity when she was approached by two men who voiced their desire to work on DEI initiatives in October/November 2024, according to the lawsuit. Sanders informed the two men that DEI was no longer a recognized programmatic space at UNC Charlotte, suggesting that they instead seek out community service projects they could get involved with. 

“Sanders went on to express her personal viewpoint that while DEI had been abandoned as a matter of policy in the UNC system, its original values ought to remain vital parts of campus life,” the lawsuit reads. “As she put it at one point, ‘We’ve renamed … reorganized … recalibrated … because language changes, right? But the people who have to be in the presence of and in the space don’t change.’”

Sanders continued by stating that she believed what one of the individuals had called “equity work” was still happening at the university but that she believed she “was not allowed” to overtly say so.

The lawsuit recalls that, on the evening that the video footage was made public, Sanders confirmed with Shaffer that the footage was not fabricated. Shaffer informed Sanders that the university would investigate the circumstances around the recording. 

“The next day, May 29, instead of being questioned by an internal investigator, Sanders was informed by Shaffer and Frank Fleming, the Executive Director of UNCC’s Division of Student Affairs, that they had decided to immediately terminate her,” the lawsuit reads. 

Read more: AAUP Defends UNC Charlotte Staffer Fired for DEI Conversation

Sanders was not provided with any specific grounds for her firing, nor was she provided with a school policy that she had been accused of violating. 

The lawsuit also points out that no effort was made to determine whether non-Black members of Sanders’ department had made similar comments to hers since the enactment of the DEI ban while asserting that, in its decades-long history, AIM has never sought to out or expose individuals who harbor racist or misogynist views. 

Because AIM does regularly aim to oust Black women like Sanders rather than white colleagues who may think similarly, the lawsuit claims both the AIM sting operation and the firing that upheld it were racially biased. 

“Race was at least a motivating factor in UNCC’s termination of Sanders, in that the university ratified or condoned AIM’s actions that are at least partially ringed by racially biased assumptions.”

The lawsuit requests a trial by jury on all issues triable by law. You can read the full suit here.