A report from an education watchdog group found that more than 350 schools have continued implementing diversity, equity, and inclusion programs despite President Donald Trump‘s anti-DEI executive orders, with dozens evading consequences by rebranding programs with alternative language.
There are a total of 376 universities, colleges, and schools with active DEI offices and programs, according to the Defending Education report. Twenty-six of these institutions allegedly rebranded or renamed themselves to skirt the Trump administration’s new rules.
“Our message to DEI agitprops at federally funded institutions is this: we see you. Any attempts at hiding race discrimination will be found out, called out, investigated, and exposed for what they are,” Defending Education Vice President Sarah Parshall Perry said in a statement.
“Despite an unequivocal directive from the White House to cease ‘DEI’ practices, too many institutions of higher education have sought to send their race essentialism underground by renaming or reorganizing race-based initiatives and DEI offices, but we know where they’re hiding,” she added. “We will keep working as long as we need to in order to end race discrimination in American education once and for all.”
Defending Education said there are nine key words and phrases that institutions have adopted to hide their DEI efforts. Those words include access, advocacy, belonging, community, compliance, inclusive excellence, institutional excellence, resilience, and success.
For example, the University of Georgia seemingly changed the name of its Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to the Office of Inclusion and Belonging. The updated description of the UGA office says it honors its namesake, “Mary Frances Early, by creating a community of inclusion and belonging: one where every member can succeed, is appreciated for the unique experiences they bring, and feels safe showing up authentically.”
Kansas State University followed a similar playbook, renaming its Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging to the Office of Access and Opportunity.
The University of Michigan shut down its overarching Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and other colleges have done the same. However, some schools, such as the University of Michigan Law and the LSA Department of Psychology, still have active DEI or DEI-adjacent pages.
Only 16 institutions removed webpages for their DEI offices, according to Defending Education.
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Last month, Trump signed an executive order prohibiting federal funds from going to schools that advanced DEI or “gender ideology.” The Trump administration initiated the process by pulling funding from Maine’s Department of Education after it continued to allow transgender athletes to compete in girls sports.
Meanwhile, Florida has supported the Trump administration’s efforts. The state’s attorney general warned schools that “some free speech rights” won’t protect them from lawsuits if they support DEI programs.