DEI ban ‘doesn’t do anything’: Undercover video raises questions about UT Austin compliance with law

The University of Texas at Austin says it has “fully implemented” the state’s diversity, equity, and inclusion ban in response to a recent undercover video that showed a gender studies employee saying the law “doesn’t do anything yet other than create more work.”

But Accuracy in Media President Adam Guillette told The College Fix that the law itself is part of the problem. His organization investigates universities in conservative led states “to find out if they’re following the law.”

“The Texas DEI ban isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on,” Guillette said in a recent interview. “DEI staffers have simply changed job titles and DEI is still being promoted in the curriculum.” 

However, Guillette also said AIM does not believe Texas universities are fully complying with the state’s restrictions. 

“Multiple administrators have lost their jobs after appearing in our videos,” he said. “It’s clear that these universities think they’re above the law.” 

The UT Austin video, shared on X by school choice activist Corey DeAngelis, shows Jackie/ Jennifer Salcedo, identified by AIM as a senior academic program coordinator in the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, discussing Texas’ restrictions on diversity, equity and inclusion programs. 

“So the AAUP managed to get them to water down the language substantially,” Salcedo told AIM’s undercover journalist in the video.

Salcedo also said the law does nothing to change how UT Austin includes DEI concepts in its courses except “create more work for the staff on the back end.” 

She also noted that while the university can’t immediately shut down programs, it could stop offering them in future catalogs, though current students would still be allowed to graduate.

However, a spokesperson for UT Austin disputed the suggestion that the video reflects the university’s compliance with state law.

“UT fully implemented SB17 two years ago and in accordance with the law performs annual compliance monitoring activities that we submit to the State of Texas for certification,” spokesman Mike Rosen told The College Fix.

Rosen said the university changed how it “approaches faculty and staff hiring, faculty and staff organizations, student organizations, grant writing, and more” to comply with the law. He also said the video is “almost a year old” and that the employee in it does not speak for UT Austin.

“The employee in the video, who clearly had limited knowledge of the details of SB17, is a program coordinator, not a University leader and does not speak for the University,” Rosen said. 

He told The Fix that UT Austin’s implementation is documented through the University Risk and Compliance Services website and its Handbook of Operating Procedures.

“Most people would not expect a coordinator position with a narrow scope of responsibility to be fully informed of the steps the University takes to comply with changes to the law,” Rosen told The Fix.

Meanwhile, progressive student activists continue to oppose the DEI law, arguing that Texas higher education reforms are undermining academic freedom.

Around the same time the undercover video came out, Students Engaged in Advancing Texas and Austin SDS held “A Funeral for the University of Texas.” 

The May 20 event was described as a memorial for the UT System and its “spirit of academic freedom.” According to the event page, the university had suffered “a prolonged death by a thousand cuts” and policies and leadership decisions by regents and administrators have “constrained free expression, silenced voices, and harmed vulnerable, innocent students.”

The page also called for a donor strike, asking UT System donors, alumni, parents, and other stakeholders to “withdraw individual giving and decline future monetary contributions until the university takes significant steps to protect academic freedom and the rights of all students, faculty, and staff.” 

The Texas Tribune reported that students and faculty dressed in funeral attire marched nearly  two miles from the UT Tower to UT System headquarters in downtown Austin.

The protest came before UT System regents approved a rule change giving campus presidents more authority to cut academic programs and faculty jobs, according to the Tribune. The new rule bars professors from appealing a president’s decision to eliminate an entire academic program and the jobs tied to it, the Tribune reported. 

UT System officials said the change is intended to streamline the process while preserving faculty input and due process.

The Texas Tribune also reported that some UT schools are consolidating race, ethnicity, and gender related programs. UT Austin officials announced in February that several race, ethnic, and gender studies departments would be merged by September 2027, though faculty were later told the consolidation would be completed by this fall, according to the report. 

Guillette rejected the protesters’ argument that these changes are harming academic freedom.

“Roughly 90% of political donations from UT Austin staffers go to Democrats,” Guillette told The Fix. “It’s clear that this university doesn’t value academic freedom or diversity of thought. They only care about promoting far left ideas.” 

He also criticized the mock funeral protest.

“This is a university run by leftwing radicals,” Guillette said. “That would be perfectly fine if they were private and refused federal funds. Unfortunately, taxpayers across Texas and across America are being forced to fund their activism.” 

Guillette said there is a distinction between discussing controversial topics in appropriate courses and requiring or promoting them across campus.

“Any educator should feel comfortable discussing controversial topics like communism, socialism, and DEI in a political class or a philosophy class,” Guillette said. “However, these topics shouldn’t be required for graduation. These topics don’t belong in math classes or apolitical classes, and they should never be promoted by educators.” He added that Texas should go further in restricting DEI at public universities.

“Higher education requires radical reform and Texas must institute a Florida style DEI ban which prohibits the promotion of identity politics,” Guillette said.

“These universities should focus on education, not activism,” he said.

The College Fix contacted Students Engaged in Advancing Texas by email multiple times last week and Austin Students for a Democratic Society via email, asking for comment on the “Funeral for the University of Texas” protest, Texas’ DEI restrictions, and their concerns about academic freedom. Neither group responded by publication time.