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FIRST ON FOX: Undercover video shows administrators at a North Carolina University detailing how they are continuing their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts despite state and federal efforts to roll back the policies.
“It shook things up around here, but fortunately for us, this office is not actually under the DEI office at all, so we’re able to just keep going. We just like switched up our, you know, changed the wording of things,” Pascha Miller, Office of Intercultural Engagement assistant director at North Carolina A&T State University, says in a video obtained by Accuracy in Media.
The videos, taken in August and September 2024, came months after the University of North Carolina System Board of Governors voted to essentially ban DEI and focus on “institutional neutrality,” Carolina Journal reported.
Michael Eccles, the university’s office manager for the Office of Intercultural Engagement, said in the video, “The word ‘diversity’, we had to change saying ‘diversity’ to competency.”
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“Yes,” Eccles said when asked if he would describe that process as “creative naming,” using the word “cleverly” to describe the method.
Austin Horne, assistant director of LGBTA Programs and Services at the Office of Intercultural Engagement, is also seen in the video going a step further.
“The Board of Governors did a statute in May that is really like, attacking DEI jobs and restricting some of our language,” Horne said. “It is very intentionally vague is what, you know, the way I read it. But it’s really leaving it up to you know each university to kind of think about it in their own way and consider how much they want to open themselves up to litigation. But, luckily I think there’s only been one position that wasn’t lost, it was just changed here.”
The undercover journalist then pressed Horne.
“Just to make sure I understand, so for at least A&T, you’ve not had to like, you’ve just changed or maybe got creative, with some of the language?” the journalist asked.
“Yes,” Horne responded.
“To get around the legislation?” the journalist asked.
“Well, it’s not even to get around the legislation, so what the legislation is, is it’s giving us, I want to say it’s 11 rules for what we can and cannot say when we are speaking on behalf of the university, and so some universities like Charlotte have taken that and said these positions can’t function with these rules in place so we’re just going to get rid of them. Every other public university has said they can function, we’re just going to try and shield ourselves from litigation.”
The journalist responded, “Just to appease the politicians?”
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“Yes, it’s very much, it’s so vague,” Horne said.
In another clip, Eccles says, “It’s been a little bit of a challenge, but we’re still pushing through and trying to make sure people get what they need.”
Miller says in another clip toward the end of the video, “We don’t use DEI anymore, it’s kind of hard not to use the word ‘diversity,’” then laughs along with the journalist and says, “We try not to, you know, just to be safe.”
Fox News Digital has reported extensively on universities this year who appear to be simply rebranding their DEI efforts in order to avoid scrutiny from the Trump administration or state governments.
Earlier this year, UNC Asheville severed ties with its Dean of Students after Fox News Digital reported on a video showing her boasting about DEI efforts still taking place but you “gotta keep it quiet.”
Fox News Digital reached out to North Carolina A&T State University for comment.
“North Carolina’s universities have been captured by lawbreaking radicals, and they require fundamental reform,” Adam Guillette, President of Accuracy in Media, told Fox News Digital.
“Any government employee who is caught circumventing laws should never again be allowed to earn a paycheck from taxpayers. And the legislature needs to enact a Kansas-style DEI ban which includes both a reporting mechanism and actual consequences for those who flout the law.”
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