Does changing a thing’s name change its nature?
“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” Juliet tells us; here, we might refer to Shylock’s “If you prick us, do we not bleed?” Every rose has its thorns, after all, and the thorny thing here is the continued use of DEI practices despite calling them something else.
Mizzou investigates professor after video shows DEI work continues despite university rollbackhttps://t.co/OwGTxl7sYv
— Campus Reform (@campusreform) October 2, 2026
Accuracy in Media released an undercover video a couple of weeks ago in which a professor admitted that DEI practices have not really disappeared, despite claims that they have.
This, in itself, is hardly a surprise. Institutions have been changing names and shuffling chairs to avoid consequences from new requirements to follow antidiscrimination laws, but they are doing the same things in the same basic ways they have for years.
It’s all a shell game, and the big mistake here was saying it out loud, which has caused quite the stink.
The University of Missouri is investigating a professor after he was secretly recorded admitting that diversity, equity, and inclusion activities persist at the university.
In a video released by the watchdog group Accuracy in Media, MU Sociology Department Chair Wayne Brekhus discussed the department’s continued DEI involvement despite state restrictions.
“Lots of us do DEI types of research and things like that. I do things with identities and inequalities and used to do a lot of LGBTQ research and things like that,” Brekhus told an undercover investigator.
Asked about the state lawmakers’ anti-DEI directives, Brekhus said they “haven’t hit the curriculum.”
He also described ways institutions have been able to bypass Missouri’s DEI restrictions.
“Usually what places did is, like, they changed the name or they put them under a different umbrella to make it less visible that it was DEI or things like that,” he said.
“It was mostly cosmetic, but in some cases that also meant, you know, if you’re folding it under another umbrella that isn’t explicitly listed as DEI, sometimes that means you’re cutting staff or you’re making it less visible to the students. So, like, those sorts of things have happened really everywhere,” he said.
Following the video’s release, the University of Missouri published a statement from Professor Brekhus on X.
“I apologize for my mistake. The video was taken last year as Mizzou was eliminating its DEI programs. I am fully aware that Mizzou no longer has DEI programs and does not conduct DEI research,” the statement reads.
There have been very few staff cuts, actually. Mostly, there have been name changes, and the more blue a region is, the more cosmetic the changes have been because academic bureaucracies, even more than the professoriat, are dominated by DEI hires.
And personnel is policy.
What happened at Mizzou is what’s happening almost everywhere.
- University of Missouri-Kansas City, August 2026. Senior program manager Kimberly Johnson: “I’m not saying the work isn’t being done, but we don’t have a central office… it’s not like it’s not being done, but it’s not called that.” A graduate assistant in the LGBTQ Rainbow Lounge said they had changed wording so programs were “open to anyone.” UMKC suspended one of the two and said that as of 2024 it has no DEI offices. AIM, College Fix.
- North Carolina A&T. Office of Intercultural Engagement assistant director Pascha Miller: the office is not under DEI, “so we’re able to just keep going. We just… changed the wording.” Office manager Michael Eccles: they changed “diversity” to “competency.” Fox News.
- University of Utah. Education coordinator Lucas Alvarez: “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.” Fox News, Daily Caller.
- Florida A&M, January 2026. Senior career specialist Sean Collins: “even though we still do it, we’re not supposed to say it… it’s not called that no longer.” Campus Reform.
- SMU, September 2026. Coordinator Danielle Palomo described “a lot of maneuvering” to keep the work hidden after the Office of Diversity and Inclusion became the Office of Cultural Intelligence. College Fix.
It’s all a shell game, and it isn’t “compliance” at all, any more than changing the name “Ponzi scheme” to “Investment vehicle” changes the nature of the scheme.
One example only tells you that a particular institution is dragging its heels, but a consistent pattern tells you the problem is systemic.
The problem is systemic. The exceptions are far less common than the pattern, and that should surprise nobody.
First, as I said, personnel is policy, and the personnel are all committed to DEI. And second, the organizational structures of colleges and universities have been shaped around DEI as a core principle, and often explicitly so. You can change the titles, but you can’t change the underlying structures without massive changes throughout the organizations.
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