Undercover footage released by Accuracy in Media last week reveals officials at Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas admitting to maneuvering behind the scenes to keep Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs alive by simply changing their names.
The footage shows SMU officials acknowledging that the Office of Diversity and Inclusion was rebranded as the Office of Cultural Intelligence.
Talking about this on American Family Radio (AFR), Corey DeAngelis, school choice advocate and executive director at the Educational Freedom Institute, said conservatives were right to be suspicious of how institutions would respond to federal and state bans on DEI.
"They go to these red states and basically point out to the public that you're not safe," he said. "Just because you're not in California doesn't mean you're going to be safe from DEI."
AFN has reported that other colleges and universities continue to teach or maintain DEI programs.
Oregon State University and the University of San Francisco, for example, require core coursework on "systems of oppression" or Critical Race Theory. Schools in states with strict legislative regulations — such as the Ohio State University and the University of North Carolina system—have largely preserved their diversity headcount by rebranding staff titles and offices under alternative vocabulary like "belonging," "engagement," or "community."
Additionally, private and historically religious institutions remain generally exempt from state bans, allowing schools like DePaul University and various Catholic universities to maintain dedicated institutional diversity structures.
In DeAngelis' view, these schools are merely moving the goalposts to preserve the same underlying agenda while continuing to accept federal funding.
He said that executive orders banning DEI are not enough to force compliance; the federal tax dollars non-compliant schools receive — an estimated $25 million annually in SMU's case — should be withheld.
"Personnel is policy, and I think one of the first steps needs to be pulling their federal funding," he said.
When asked about the university's written response to the allegations, DeAngelis dismissed SMU's statement as a deflection designed to quiet the controversy.
"It looks like a Kamala Harris gobbledygook word salad full of gaslighting," he told AFR. "It looks like it was written by AI, and it doesn't address anything in the video about the maneuvering to keep DEI hidden."
As critics call for formal federal investigations, SMU maintains that it complies with all state and federal regulations.
