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This story is part of Fox News Digital’s investigative series Campus Radicals. Get the full series here.
FIRST ON FOX: Multiple staffers at the University of Virginia were documented on video openly explaining their efforts to continue pushing diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs at the school by simply rebranding them to avoid scrutiny or a potential loss of federal funds.
“We had to change the names of some of our programs and stuff, like we had Queer Brunch, we can’t call it Queer Brunch anymore, you gotta call it Cozy Brunch, so we changed the name to that, like, we had a program in the Latinx Student Center called Comida Comunidad, it’s like community and friends, and we had to change the name of that to just food and community now,” Davon Lewis, program coordinator multicultural student services, explained in a video obtained by Fox News Digital.
“So like, we’re doing the same stuff, but like changing the names a little bit, so like it doesn’t and bring scrutiny on the office and stuff like that.”
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Universities across the country have been facing pressure to rein in DEI initiatives after the Trump administration began its push to rid DEI from the federal government, military, and education system arguing it promotes discrimination and favoring instead a system based on meritocracy.
Fox News Digital has reported on several examples in states like Utah, Iowa, and North Carolina where universities appear to be doubling down on DEI and simply rebranding it.
“We just have to do a lot more, like we have to market differently to multiple outlets,” Lewis explained. “It’s a whole lot that goes into it, but we’re doin’ the same work.“
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When asked if the implementation of DEI at UVA is just a matter of changing the name to stay out of trouble, Lewis responded with a laugh, “Yes.”
Asia, a student at UVA, is seen on the video explaining that there was concern about “like antisemitism,” putting air quotes on antisemitism with her fingers, and noted that the school’s president was ousted in June over DEI concerns from the Trump administration.
Asia says in the video that “now all of our affinity programs are basically finding ways to, like, kind of move under the radar.”
“We didn’t actually get rid of our programs and stuff like that, just like renamed them.”
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Kamell Minor, a programs intern at the school, said the university is in a “weird spot.”
“All of the staff here are really working to try to find ways to still have programming and still hold events. We just have to be a little bit more, like, cautious.”
Last week, roughly a month after the video was filmed, the Trump administration said it struck a deal with the University of Virginia that required the school to adopt its legal view on diversity, equity and inclusion in exchange for a pause on civil rights investigations and continued eligibility for federal funding.
The agreement, made public by the Justice Department, marked the first time a state university has settled with the Trump administration in its wide-ranging campaign to pressure top U.S. universities over pro-Palestinian student protests and policies designed to increase diversity that the administration has condemned as discriminatory.
“The new interim president is, like, he said that our mission is still the same, we just had to, like, political winds are going to do this, that, that there, but, like UVA’s mission is the same,” Lewis says in the video.
Fox News Digital reached out to UVA asking if they could quell any concerns that DEI would still continue to be implemented at the same pace, given the eagerness of staffers in the video to conceal those efforts.
“Thanks for sharing this,” a university spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “It goes without saying that these individuals are sharing their own views and that they are not representing official University policies or positions.”
“Following the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Students for Fair Admissions case and the federal administration’s issuance of related guidance, the University initiated an extensive review of our policies and procedures to ensure that all of our programs are operating within the law. As part of that review, we made many changes to make absolutely clear that UVA does not discriminate on the basis of race or any other characteristic, and that all spaces, events, and programs are open to everyone. That review is ongoing, and we will continue to make changes as necessary.”
The spokesperson added that the video was taken “several weeks” before the DOJ agreement and the “content captured does not relate in any way to the agreement.”
“The agreement in question suspends 5 Department of Justice investigations and commits the University to follow the DOJ’s guidance on U.S. civil rights laws, as long as they are consistent with judicial decisions,” the spokesperson said. “The University is committed to honoring that agreement. If you’re interested in additional details about how it will operate, you can review our FAQ page.”
In March, in a move praised by Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, the University of Virginia Board of Visitors’ voted to dissolve the University’s Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI) and Community.
As DEI continues to face more scrutiny with universities, government and corporations, Consumers’ Research Executive Director Will Hild told Fox News Digital earlier this year that those entities won’t give up DEI without a fight and will instead start rebranding existing efforts.
“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,” Hild told Fox News Digital.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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