Ouster of UNCA Dean Filmed in Secret Recording

Megan Pugh had been dean of students since 2021. Photo: UNCA

By Jack Evans –

After the dean of students at the University of North Carolina Asheville exited her job earlier this month in the wake of an undercover video published by a right-wing activist organization, the school’s chancellor warned university employees that more attempted recordings could be coming.

UNCA announced on Tuesday, June 3, 2025 that Megan Pugh, who had been dean of students since 2021, was no longer employed by the school. The same day, Accuracy in Media—a decades-old conservative organization lately known for its attacks on public school officials and pro-Palestinian protesters—posted an edited version of a secret recording of Pugh, in which she appeared to support diversity, equity and inclusion policies discontinued by the UNC System and said she “(loved) breaking rules.”

UNCA spokesperson Brian Hart, citing a university policy against commenting on personnel matters, declined to say whether Pugh was fired or resigned. Pugh declined to comment for this story via an intermediary.

In an email to faculty and staff, Chancellor Kimberly van Noort said Accuracy in Media’s video “was secretly recorded by an individual who misrepresented their identity in order to gain access to university offices. We anticipate similar attempts may continue.”

Van Noort also directed faculty and staff to refer questions from media or other outside organizations to the school’s communications office.

The UNC System’s Board of Governors voted to repeal its DEI policy in May 2024. Such policies, meant to ensure that people from marginalized communities have fair opportunities at education and employment, have increasingly been under attack from the right before and since the second election of Donald Trump, who has sought to make their elimination a cornerstone of his presidency.

The UNC System ordered individual schools to reorient their policies toward “principled neutrality” last summer, and on September 1 it reported that 59 employees had been fired systemwide, including two at UNCA.

It is not clear when the secret video was filmed; Accuracy in Media did not respond to Asheville Watchdog’s questions about the video or the identity of the so-called “investigator” who shot it. Hart said the university did not know when the video was shot and only became aware of it Monday, June 2, 2025, when it began a review of the incident.

“It is the University’s understanding that the person who recorded the video likely identified themselves as a student or prospective student who asked to discuss DEI-related topics,” Hart said in an email.

A Secret Recording

Accuracy in Media’s video is about two-and-a-half minutes long. A little under two minutes of it consists of footage of Pugh, some of it with audio removed. She sits at a desk, in front of a whiteboard with a to-do list for fall months. Her interlocutor, out of frame save for a flash of a hand that holds a plastic coffee cup, purportedly asks her about the school’s DEI efforts—though that topic of conversation is not audibly established.

“I’m so glad that you guys are still doing stuff,” the speaker says at the beginning of the video. A caption on the video replaces “stuff” with “equity work.”

“I mean, we probably still do anyway,” Pugh responds. “But we gotta keep it—gotta keep it quiet. But I love breaking rules.”

Later, the speaker tells Pugh that they previously did “implicit bias training for Georgia” and asks Pugh about such training at UNCA.

“I do think that the sort of guidance from the System office has been very specific about implicit bias training in a way that I don’t enjoy,” Pugh responds. “My hope and intention is that we can still incorporate those things, even sort of under a broader banner.”

“These remarks do not represent the practices of UNC Asheville,” the school said in a public statement. “The University remains firmly committed to upholding all UNC System policies as well as federal and state laws, both in principle and in practice.”