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FIRST ON FOX: A conservative watchdog group has released a video that it says raises concerns that administrators at the University of Utah are continuing to push diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), possibly at odds with a relatively new state anti-DEI law.
“No, no comment,” University of Utah education coordinator Lucas Alvarez told Accuracy in Media when asked about an allegation he was pushing DEI in violation of a 2024 law aimed at curbing DEI practices inside state universities.
Accuracy in Media President Adam Guillette then showed Alvarez video of him explaining the current DEI practices at the university.
“We’re still, I think, figuring out as we go, like, HB261,” Alvarez said in the video. “It’s complicated, I mean, like, the programs that we’re doing, I think technically we’re still allowed to do them, but they have to be marketed in a certain way.”
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A conservative watchdog group has released a video suggesting DEI is being rebranded at University of Utah. (Accuracy in Media)
When pressed by Guillette on what he meant by changing “marketing,” Alvarez once again said no comment.
Alvarez was also pressed about another comment he made on video suggesting DEI was still a focus at the university, explaining that his department has been “meeting with a lot of campus partners” to do the “strategic work” of being in “compliance” but pointing out that these partners have “academic freedom.”
“I think what he was referring to was the professors have academic freedom to do research and speak from their expertise in the field that they’ve studied,” LeiLoni McLaughlin, the university’s director of the Center for Community & Cultural Engagement, told Guillette when asked what Alvarez meant.
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The University of Utah campus is viewed from Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City, Utah. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)
“He kind of suggested that they shifted things over to the professors though,” Guillette said, prompting McLaughlin to explain she thinks that was a “false statement.”
McLaughlin was then asked by Guillette what Alvarez meant by changing the “marketing.”
“I think with the legislative changes, every university has had to shift,” McLaughlin said.
“Shift their actions or just shift how they market what they are doing,” Guillette responded.
“Both,” McLaughlin answered.
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People march outside the office of hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman, protesting his campaign against diversity, equity, and inclusion and attacks against former Harvard University President Claudine Gay in New York City, Jan. 4, 2024. (Reuters/Shannon Stapleton)
A University of Utah spokesperson told Fox News Digital in a statement, “I reject the assertion that the university is hiding diversity work with rebranding and remarketing.”
“The changes required under HB 261 transformed how we support student success, recruit faculty, celebrate events and create a sense of belonging on our campus.”
The spokesperson added that Alvarez is “not a spokesperson for the University of Utah.”
“His comments do not reflect the position of the institution,” the spokesperson continued. “The comments of LeiLoni McLaughlin, director of our Center for Cultural and Community Engagement…were much more aligned with university leaders.”
The spokesperson also pointed to an interview that she said showed the Black Student Union was “extensively mourning the loss of their center and identity-based resources” due to the school following the new law.
The school has previously outlined measures taken to conform with the law, including closing identity-based resource centers, transferring DEI employees to other jobs on campus, and prohibiting diversity statements in hiring.
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“This isn’t about one or two bad apples — it’s about a broken system,” Guillette told Fox News Digital about his video footage, filmed in October 2024 and May of this year.
“Utah needs a Kansas-style DEI ban with a reporting mechanism and actual legal consequences. And more importantly, America’s university system needs to be fundamentally reshaped with a focus on education rather than activism.”
Republicans across the country, along with President Donald Trump’s administration, have scored major victories pushing back on DEI in favor of meritocracy standards, but experts have warned that universities and organizations will be hostile toward the idea of giving up those methods and will instead attempt to rebrand them under different banners.
“At first, they just pushed back on, tried to defend DEI itself, but when that became so obvious that what DEI really was anti-White, anti-Asian, sometimes anti-Jewish discrimination in hiring and promotion, they abandoned that,” Consumers’ Research Executive Director Will Hild told Fox News Digital earlier this year. “Now what they’re trying to do is simply change the terminology that has become so toxic to their brand. So we’re seeing a lot of companies move from having departments of DEI, for example, to ‘departments of belonging’ or ‘departments of inclusivity.’”
Hid added, “It is the exact same toxic nonsense under a new wrapper, and they’re just hoping to extend the grift, because a lot of these people — I would say most of the people — working in DEI are useless.”
