Public university pounces on student media for 'racist and insensitive' April Fools' Day jokes

California has been waiting a year-and-a-half to enforce its ban on "materially deceptive" AI-generated political content, including memes and parodies of elected officials, after a federal court blocked the law as applied to conservative satirists including the Babylon Bee.

The Golden State is also going on seven months hoping for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn the final ruling by U.S. District Judge John Mendez striking down the law as unconstitutional. Pro-parody friend-of-the-court briefs flooded the appeals court last month.

The University of North Carolina's flagship campus didn't have to wait that long to successfully suppress parody in its own backyard, jawboning an independent student newspaper and a student-run comedy show for April Fools' Day jokes that offended some students.

The Daily Tar Heel's April 1 front page included fake articles about President Trump directing Immigration and Customs Enforcement to enforce alcohol laws in Chapel Hill, UNC bringing back diversity, equity and inclusion "for whites," and an "AI chancellor" named ChatGPLee, referring to real Chancellor Lee Roberts.

It also satirically rebranded as "The Daily Woke Heel" following "14 hours of deliberation and a land acknowledgement that we feel did not go long enough," and hired "a second DEI consultant to audit every single headline for harm." All posts were labeled "satire" but initially tagged as news, rather than opinion, on the website.

Hill After Hours, founded just last fall, posted a short sketch seemingly intended to mock white influencers for their patronizing visits to poor countries. 

A white female student named "Stacy," a slur for attractive but vain white women, takes viewers to the "third world" South Campus, historically associated with black students, to show "the people here are just like us" and to "bask in their culture and their struggle." She brings bodyguards "just in case," who tote her pepper spray, Taser and vape pen.

Stacy recoils when a black female student greets her by name and tries to hug her, then Stacy encounters a Latino basketball player and speaks broken Spanish to him.

UNC lawyer appears to contradict top official 

UNC has already drawn a legal warning from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, which alleges Senior Vice Provost James Orr's April 6 statement condemning the "racist and insensitive" content violates state law requiring UNC to remain institutionally neutral "on the political controversies of the day."

Orr said Student Affairs staff would meet with Daily Tar Heel leadership "to engage in a conversation that reinforces our values and commitment to fostering a welcoming environment for all students," potentially chilling editors' speech, despite acknowledging the newspaper is "legally and financially independent" of the university.

More troubling for FIRE, Orr said Student Affairs is "investigating" Hill After Hours, a registered student group, "to determine more information about how and by whom" its comedy sketch "was authorized and produced as well as next steps needed to address concerns."

It doesn't matter for First Amendment purposes whether UNC "ultimately imposes formal sanctions after an investigation," FIRE Student Press Counsel Marie McMullan wrote Chancellor Lee on Thursday, copying Senior Vice Provost Orr. (Supreme Court precedent holds that even brief First Amendment infringement "unquestionably constitutes irreparable injury.")

The university's "condemnation of and investigation into Hill After Hours has improperly chilled student speech, as the university has made clear that such satire and parody will not be tolerated," she wrote, claiming UNC refused to retract Orr's statement after FIRE reached out "privately," prompting the civil liberties group to go public. 

"Students and student journalists do not lose their First Amendment rights because their speech is offensive, unpopular, or badly received," and "UNC is not free to answer it with condemnation and investigation," McMullan said.

The Hill After Hours video is a "satire of the genre of performative allyship that some refer to as 'white lady liberalism,'" McMullan argued Friday in a News & Observer op-ed.

"The sketch is dripping with mockery for the soft bigotry of exoticizing ordinary places, such as by treating a section of campus as if it’s rural Chad, and the over-the-top pearl-clutching of this well-intentioned white girl whose bodyguards gasp at masonry defects," McMullan wrote.

UNC responded Friday through Deputy General Counsel Kara Simmons, saying, "We are not investigating any student or student group" for the newspaper and comedy show content, either contradicting Orr or implying the probe into Hill After Hours had already ended. 

The Daily Tar Heel conversations were "voluntary" and provided "support and resources responsive to feedback and threats the students had received," Simmons said. 

Administrators also "reiterated that we uphold the free expression rights of all students and support them when they face pushback related to the exercise of those rights, even when the University does not endorse their message," she said.

Simmons noted, as did FIRE, that UNC enjoys the group's highest free-speech rating, meaning its written policies "do not seriously imperil speech."

Orr's statement "was in no way intended to chill the free expression rights of our campus community," Simmons wrote. "We will continue to take proactive steps, including a review of our websites, to assure that all students and student groups understand that we support their First Amendment rights," which are "unburdened by the University."

UNC did not respond to Just the News queries to reconcile Simmons' claims with Orr's statement and explain how administrators requesting meetings with students for their speech, if not formally investigating them, does not create unconstitutional chilling effects.

“UNC’s intention may not have been to chill speech, but that’s exactly what this kind of statement does," McCullan told Just the News in response to the university. 

"The university must retract its statement publicly. We welcome any opportunity to work with UNC to improve trainings on its policies so it can live up to its First Amendment and institutional neutrality obligations," she wrote in an email.

New twice-yearly DEI trainings for editors

The administrative response followed student outrage against the April Fools' Day jokes, including by student government leaders with the power to punish at least Hill After Hours as a registered student group.

Incoming student body president Devin Duncan told The News & Observer he wondered whether The Daily Tar Heel "had been hacked" because of the "very unsettling, disrespectful, and insensitive" parodies. Current president Adolfo Alvarez said the "DEI for whites" joke was "a slap in the face" and mocks students "fighting just to feel like they belong on this campus."

Students United for Immigrant Equality and the Black Student Movement also posted condemnations, The News & Observer said.

A viral TikTok video by a black UNC student, with more than 200,000 likes and nearly 19,000 shares, incorrectly claimed "my school" posted the "really insensitive and disturbing" content, then specified they were "university-affiliated platforms," which only applies to Hill After Dark.

Newspaper editor-in-chief Alli Pardue disavowed the satire – a regular section of its website, not just an April Fools' Day one-off – and apologized to readers for "insensitive decisions and oversights made by a newsroom and leadership team that undoubtedly exist in positions of power and privilege on this campus."

"We did not sufficiently consider how an onslaught of satirical content, from us, would be perceived in this political climate under an April Fools’ Day banner," she wrote, promising to meet with student organizations that "have expressed their outrage [...] to discuss how we may begin to address and alleviate their concerns."

A "committee of newsroom editors" followed up with a much more groveling statement apologizing for Pardue's insufficient abasement, offering concrete actions to atone for "our failures of basic empathy, editorial judgment and sensitivity" as a "predominantly white newsroom with a documented history of harmful reporting."

It took down all the satirical articles Monday but left up the April Fools' Day PDF "in the interest of transparency and accountability."

The newspaper will make amends going forward by adding a "dedicated news adviser" to guarantee "consistent professional oversight," subject editors to twice-yearly DEI trainings starting in August, and halt the satire section "for at least the remainder of the semester" so next year's leaders can "reevaluate how we can responsibly produce this content."

Hill After Hours posted a statement on Instagram saying the South Campus sketch "was not funny, and we understand that satire is not an excuse for ignorance." It apologized for not more thoroughly researching UNC history and failing its mission to "uplift the Carolina community."

The registered student group thanked critics for "your ability to hold us accountable" and said its members are "taking the time to educate ourselves on this issue further."