University of Iowa official secretly filmed admitting DEI survives law, board directives
A University of Iowa official was caught in a video published on Wednesday admitting that Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) essentially still remains at the institution.
'It is real. It still exists,' the official said of DEI at the institution.
A University of Iowa official was caught in a video published on Wednesday admitting that Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) essentially still remains at the institution.
“On behalf of my office, we’re still going to talk about DEI. We’re still going to do all the DEI things,” Andrea Tinoco, the Assistant Director of Leadership and Student Organization Development, said in a video recorded on July 2 and published by Fox News on Wednesday.
“So it still exists: DEI and student organizations and all of that,” she continued. “It is real. It still exists.”
The official noted that DEI “buzzwords” have been removed, but they “operate around” restrictions by performing the same work under other terms like “civic engagement.”
Tinoco acknowledged that she still uses “DEI” in her course because it is “real.”
The video shows a first person perspective of Tinoco as she has a conversation with someone who seems to be inquiring about changes to the university’s DEI policies.
Campus Reform reported in March that the Iowa Board of Regents instructed the state’s public universities, including the University of Iowa, to completely remove DEI from school websites.
Iowa passed an anti-DEI law in May, and President Trump signed an anti-DEI executive order in January, threatening federal funding restrictions for universities that continue to maintain DEI.
At the time of its instructions, the board clarified that schools had to eliminate DEI and not merely rebrand it.
The University of Iowa responded to the order in May by renaming its DEI office and removing other DEI activities.
According to Tinoco, the changes were not substantial.
“[W]e took off the words [on the website], but we’re still doing what we do here,” Tinoco stated.
At another point in the video, Tinoco seemingly criticizes the Board of Regents for being white.
“There’s our president of our university and then there’s the Board of Regents,” she said. “Someone told me to look them up one time, and I did, and it was just a bunch of white people.”
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds filed a complaint with Attorney General Brenna Bird’s office on Wednesday in response to the video’s publication. Bird’s office opened an investigation the same day.
Various university officials have been secretly recorded in recent months, suggesting they continue to maintain DEI despite state and federal directives.
A leaked video from last month shows a Belmont University staff member explaining that the school had disguised its DEI activities under the name of “Hope, Unity, and Belonging.”
Similarly, a Vanderbilt University official was recently caught on camera admitting that the work of DEI still exists despite ongoing public policy changes.
The group Accuracy in Media has also released several videos since May showing University of North Carolina system staff members describing efforts to maintain undercover DEI initiatives.
