Ever since some red states started restricting the DEI focus of colleges and universities, some schools have been trying to cheat. I wrote about this back in April (here and here). The gist is that some school administrators have decided they can sidestep DEI restrictions by simply renaming the offices that carry out those functions or, in some cases, by shuffling personnel around without firing anyone. This has been called rebranding.

This week an organization that monitors DEI practices on campuses across the US put out a report saying some schools are still rebranding even in states that have passed laws regulating DEI on campus.

CriticalRace.org, which monitors CRT curricula and training in higher education, has cataloged over 700 institutions of higher education to examine activities on campus. The group says that out of 26 universes where legislative efforts have been implemented to phase out DEI, 10 have simply replaced them with new offices that have similar programming and/or personnel, as lawmakers face an uphill battle to uproot DEI ideology from public institutions.

"These findings highlight how deeply embedded CRT and DEI concepts are in higher education, with entrenched ideological commitment that is resistant to change," William A. Jacobson told Fox News Digital.

"The efforts to excise CRT and DEI from universities will take time to see real impact," Jacobson continued. "Higher education has little desire to reform itself, and only a sustained long-term effort will move universities back to the central mission of education, and away from ideological indoctrination."

Professor Jacobson will be known to HotAir readers as the founder of the excellent blog Legal Insurrection. He is also the founder of Critical Race.org. Here's a bit of the report itself.

There are currently eleven states that have signed laws prohibiting DEI including Alabama, Florida, Texas, Idaho, Kansas, Utah, Iowa, Tennessee, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Oklahoma. State laws vary but they all have a common thread, they limit DEI trainings, practices, and offices. Many of the laws went into effect this summer. Some Schools have completely gutted DEI Departments and Programs, while others are renaming departments and job titles to try to conserve diversity programs.

For example, the University of Alabama disbanded its DEI office and launched the Division of Opportunities, Connections, and Success; however, the new division is led by Dr. Christine Taylor, who was the Vice President and Associate Provost for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Florida State University took a similar approach by changing title names and reclassifying positions of employees who were already working in DEI to give them different roles; the approach circumvented the University laying anyone off. The Office of Equal Opportunity Compliance and Engagement was activated in October 2023 to replace the DEI office.

A few other examples of apparent rebranding from the report:

• Oklahoma State University - The Office of Institutional Diversity was renamed the Division of Access and Community Impact. 
• South Dakota State University - The Diversity, Inclusion, Equity, and Access Office was renamed the Opportunity Center. 
  • The School of Communication and Journalism still has a DEI plan and statement online. 
• University of South Dakota - The Center for Diversity and Community was renamed the Opportunity Center in 2022.

Getting schools to take the label "Diversity, Equity and Inclusion" off their DEI offices was not the point of the laws passed in these 11 states. The point was to put an end to programs which focus heavily on racial identity and oppression, often at the expense of a focus on education. 

But as Prof. Jacobson points out, these universities don't want to change or reform. They want to keep doing what they were doing and hope no one notices. As a University of Texas Tyler employee said, "No, you can still do it. You just have to be creative." Here's the undercover video by Accuracy in Media that contains that quote.