In some places, a backlash against “woke” public policy has put an end to initiatives that promote “diversity” and “equity.” In Elon, however, it’s the apparent success of one such venture that has brought about its demise.
On Monday, Elon’s town council officially dissolved its committee on Diversity, Equity, and Belonging to mark the completion of the marching orders that this group received when it was formed.
Initially conceived in 2021, this citizen advisory board was set to work in 2023 on a quest to scrub any vestiges of bias from the town’s code of ordinances. The committee’s members returned to the council later that year with a few recommendations about the code’s gender references that the council tried to address with a modified preamble.
Elon’s town manager Richard Roedner acknowledged that the committee’s members have struggled to find a new purpose since they put their original mission to rest more than two years ago.
“They came to the conclusion that they’ve done what the council asked them to do in 2021,” Roedner recalled at a town council meeting on Monday night. “They felt that, absent moving into another direction, their job was done.”
At Roedner’s suggestion, the council adopted a resolution that decommissioned the committee and recognized its members for their service to the community. Before the council’s reached this 5-to-0 decision, Elon’s mayor Emily Sharpe took a few moments to emphasize that the committee’s dissolution was an accolade and not a vote of no confidence.
“They hit the ground running,” she said, “and I think they accomplished what the council set out for them in 2021.”
