Arizona State University administrators continue to openly defend and promote Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives despite federal bans, state bans, Arizona Board of Regents bans, and legal action surrounding DEI programs in higher education.

The latest hidden-camera footage released by Accuracy in Media captures yet another ASU administrator acknowledging that DEI ideology remains deeply embedded within the university’s academic culture and curriculum.

Kayla Elizondo-Nunez, Graduate Program Coordinator for ASU’s School of Social Transformation, was recorded speaking candidly with an undercover Accuracy in Media investigator posing as a prospective student.

Elizondo-Nunez emphasized the surrounding Phoenix area as a hub for “progressive communities,” encouraging involvement in demographic-based clubs and campus-run organizations.

When the investigator asked whether ASU’s communications program included antiracism coursework despite such language no longer being prominently advertised, Elizondo-Nunez admitted the ideological content remains active inside the classroom.

“Yeah, we do have a number of classes on racial theory.”

Multiple ASU employees previously recorded by Accuracy in Media described efforts to navigate restrictions while continuing the substance of the programs behind the scenes.

Together, the recordings paint a consistent picture: ASU complies publicly with the wording of the bans while preserving the ideology in practice.

Take action now by visiting SaveASU.com to send one message directly to the relevant elected officials demanding accountability and an end to taxpayer-funded DEI programs at Arizona State University.

The post ASU Admin Says: “We Are DEI” Despite Board of Regents Ban appeared first on Accuracy In Media.

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by Jessica Priest May 22, 2026, 1:50 p.m. Central | Updated: May 22, 2026, 4:02 p.m. Central

Texas’ second audit of public colleges’ compliance with the state’s diversity, equity and inclusion ban found no violations at the University of Texas System and 15 community colleges, even as conservative activists continue to accuse some of keeping DEI-related work alive under new names.

The State Auditor’s Office report cleared UT System schools and the community colleges on one narrow question: whether they spent state money in violation of Senate Bill 17, the 2023 Texas law that forced public colleges to close DEI offices, end required DEI trainings and stop using diversity statements in hiring.

The report does not detail about what auditors found at each campus, what issues they raised privately with university leaders or how schools draw the line between banned DEI work and classroom teaching the law still protects.

The post The Texas Tribune Highlights AIM’s Role in Texas DEI Accountability Debate appeared first on Accuracy In Media.

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“I’m not gonna change it until somebody physically makes me,” said Don Kurtz, head of the Social Work department at Kansas State University. 

Speaking on hidden camera to an Accuracy in Media undercover journalist, Kurtz boasted that his department still has classes such as “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Social Practice” and “Race, Power, and Privilege.”

“I’m not doing their work for them when they try to change things,” Kurtz explained. 

“I do think that there’s elements where we do still have to study people’s differences to be able to work with them. And I think we stick to our guns in those situations because it’s really important,” he added. 

Kansas has put multiple measures in place to limit the destructive influence of this ideology. But clearly it’s not stopping people like Kurtz. 

Last year, the state legislature banned DEI in state agencies, including public institutions of higher education like Kansas State University. 

The Kansas Board of Regents issued its own directive to public universities in the state, instructing them to eliminate all positions, mandates, policies, programs, preferences, activities, and training relating to DEI. As part of this, employees were required to remove pronouns from their email signatures and business cards. 

President Trump has issued his own executive orders banning the woke ideology from institutions that receive federal funding, which nearly all institutions rely on. 

Some social work programs justify their continued DEI crusade by citing accreditation requirements from the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE). 

According to a 2022 copy of CSWE’s standards for accreditation, programs must “Engage Anti-Racism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ADEI) in Practice.” This is considered one of nine “core competencies.”

Several states have taken notice of how this loophole is being used to inject harmful ideology. Florida, Georgia, Texas, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Tennessee have all taken steps to establish their own accreditation bodies that don’t require DEI.

Kansas and other states need to follow similar steps to make sure taxpayers aren’t forced to fund woke requirements enshrined in accreditation standards. 

Visit DEIInKansas.com where you can easily send one message to all relevant officials. Taxpayers shouldn’t be funding DEI while university faculty skirt the law. 

The post Kansas State department head refuses to remove DEI ‘until somebody physically makes me’ appeared first on Accuracy In Media.

By Jane Winik Sartwell Updated May 20, 2026 5:01 PM

Jae Edwards, former assistant director of NC State’s Pride Center, was suddenly fired by the university in February after the activist group Accuracy in Media surreptitiously recorded him talking about diversity, equity, and inclusion — and posted the interaction on social media. Edwards, who had won the Pride of the Wolfpack award weeks before his firing, was crushed by the loss of his job. “I miss my students,” Edwards told the N&O in March. “It’s just shocking. … I very much loved my job and the impact I was able to make.”

Read the rest of The News & Observer’s article here.

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A faculty member at the University of Texas at Austin revealed how universities got Texas lawmakers to “water down” its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion ban. 

According to Jackie/Jennifer Salcedo, a senior academic program coordinator in the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) “was at the capitol every day.”

“So the AAUP managed to get them to water down the language substantially,” she revealed to Accuracy in Media’s undercover journalist on hidden camera. 

In fact, she said the law does nothing to change how UT Austin includes DEI concepts in its courses except for “create more work for the staff on the back end.”

As for President Trump’s anti-DEI executive orders, a student in the department claimed the university doesn’t “have to comply with that.” 

“They’re very hard to enforce. Yea, they’re not enforceable. The president’s just saying things for the most part. And even him like directing an agency to do X, Y, or Z is not… yeah it’s not law,” the unnamed student said. 

Both Salcedo and the student explained to AIM’s journalist that those enrolling at the university are still receiving DEI education and if they enroll in a program that includes it, they will be permitted to complete the program–DEI included. 

“Yeah they can’t shut down programs,” Salcedo said. “I mean they could say starting in this catalog this won’t be available but like they’re going to let people graduate.”

Last year, Gov. Greg Abbott, R-Texas, signed Texas bill 37, which significantly strengthens state restrictions on DEI teachings in public education. 

It also created a state committee to make recommendations for core required courses. 

University system boards of regents are also required to create curriculum review committees, which can reject courses that are ideologically-driven. 

The Trump administration has also cracked down on DEI, issuing multiple executive orders tackling indoctrination at public universities and those that rely on federal funds. 

AIM is making sure Texas universities are complying with the new law, and if they don’t–we’re exposing it to taxpayers. 

Go to DEIInTexas.com now to send one convenient message to all relevant trustees. Let them know taxpayers won’t sit idly by while schools defy the law to keep pushing woke ideology.

The post UT Austin administrator says lobbyists got lawmakers to ‘water down’ DEI bill appeared first on Accuracy In Media.

Despite federal pressure, action from the Arizona Board of Regents, and ongoing legal challenges, new undercover footage from Accuracy in Media suggests that Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion remains embedded at Arizona State University. Administrators acknowledge making cosmetic changes to create the appearance of compliance, while in reality changing very little.

Accuracy in Media’s journalists have now spoken with multiple ASU officials who don’t dispute the existence of DEI bans. Instead, they describe how the university has adapted, by replacing key words while maintaining the underlying programs.

Nancy Landers, a coordinator in ASU’s School of Social and Family Dynamics, was direct when asked whether the campus environment was similar to progressive states like California. “It is,” she said. “Thankfully it is.”

Landers credited ASU President Michael Crow with setting that tone, referencing his appearance on PBS’s Amanpour and Company. According to Landers, the university has “managed to avoid the worst of the vitriol” directed at institutions that openly support DEI.

She reassured our investigator, saying, “You don’t have to worry.”

But her explanation of how ASU is navigating the bans gives cause for concern.

“We have to … take the actual words out,” Landers said. “Colleges all over the country do.”

In practice, that has meant renaming programs and removing terms that have become politically or legally sensitive. “We had to change the name of the centers,” she explained, noting that even the word “diversity” had to be eliminated.

Referring to Donald Trump’s opposition to DEI, Landers offered her interpretation: “All I can think of is that it implies fewer white people and that is threatening to him.”

Yet, by her own account, those changes are largely cosmetic.

“We’ve got that part changed but it isn’t changing the work,” Landers said. “We had to take it out, the wording.”

Landers is the latest in a growing list of ASU administrators whom AIM has caught on camera saying the same thing—comply on paper, but keep the substance intact.

Take action at SaveASU.com to send one message to all of the relevant elected officials. If taxpayer-funded universities are rebranding instead of complying, they should be held accountable.

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By Henry Aleksandrov | May 12, 2026

An Ohio State University official allegedly told an undercover conservative journalist that the university is still promoting left-wing beliefs to its students, even though Senate Bill 1, passed last year by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, limits diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.

Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs at the Ohio State, Jennie Babcock, told an undercover journalist at Accuracy in Media that “from a curriculum standpoint, there are no limitations in terms of what we teach.”

During the conversation, Babcock mentioned SB 1, saying that “the good news” about the bill is that “it doesn’t impact our curriculum.”

“We are teaching our curriculum, our courses, as we always have,” she said. “We talk about bias. We talk about social justice.”

Babcock added that they “can talk about anything in a class as long as our learning objectives on the syllabus are clearly stated.”

“We have many courses that are on sexual diversity. We are still teaching them. We are teaching them as we always have,” she said.

Even though there is no limitation on the curriculum, Babcock admitted that the university president and the Board of Trustees eliminated various “student support entities,” such as OSU’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion, which was shut down after DeWine signed the bill.

However, Babcock said that the university’s student-led organizations were not impacted by the bill because they are “outside of that legislation.”

“For instance, in the College of Social Work, we have Out in Social Work, which is a student organization that is made up of LGBTQ and allies,” she said.

Babcock also said that the university has a staff advisor who helps students with all DEI-related matters.

Babcock then said that the push by conservatives to stop the DEI initiatives is “really frustrating,” adding that she and her colleagues, who are passionate about sharing their left-wing beliefs with the students, are “really angry” because they claim that the bill infringes on their ability to teach what they want to teach and how they want to teach it.

After President Donald Trump was elected to a second term, she received many phone calls and emails from prospective students – especially prospective graduate students – who were concerned about whether it still made sense to come to OSU, given the recently passed law.

President of Accuracy in Media, Adam Guillette, criticized Senate Bill 1 in his email response to Ohio.News, writing that “Ohio’s DEI ban isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on.”

Read the rest of Ohio.news’ article here.

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