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Texas employees latest casualties in Accuracy in Media’s undercover video operation
Two staffers at universities in Texas are “no longer employed” after they were caught on video saying that diversity, equity and inclusion is still embedded in their schools despite a law banning the ideology.
The videos were released earlier this month by Accuracy in Media, a rightwing advocacy group that has been going around to campuses across the country for over a year, catching employees admitting that they still engage in DEI despite laws against the practice.
One staffer worked at the University of Texas at Arlington and the other was at the University of North Texas. Both of them no longer work at those institutions, according to statements by campus officials in the wake of the videos’ publications.
“These radicals think they are above the law and that no one will ever catch them,” Adam Guillette, president of AIM, told The College Fix in a telephone interview.
“What is outrageous is that we only meet these people for a few minutes. We are strangers, and yet they are happy to brag about breaking laws,” he said. “What if we got to know them over a longer period of time? This just shows how deep the rot in higher education goes.”
UT-Arlington
At UT-Arlington, an undercover Accuracy in Media investigator spoke to Melissa Cruz, who at the time was an academic recruiter in social work. While it was recorded in October 2025, the heavily edited, nearly four-minute video was released April 13.
Speaking about DEI at the school, Cruz was recorded as saying: “So, the intention is still the same. The research is still the same. The practice is still the same. It’s just called something different now.”
“Our job is to push back and to cause good trouble.”
Cruz told the undercover investigator professors know how to work around SB 37, a law passed in Texas last year to remove diversity, equity, and inclusion activism from public higher education.
In the video, Cruz said for example that the term “cultural competency hours” have been renamed “human services” hours.
UT Arlington’s Office of Media Relations told The College Fix that they take “these matters seriously and acted promptly to investigate.”
Cruz’s statements in the video “do not represent university policy or practice,” and she is “no longer employed by the university,” spokesman Jeffrey Caplan told The Fix on April 20.
Cruz did not respond to The College Fix’s request for comment through email.
University of North Texas
“It’s one of those things where … we need to follow the law because that’s what it is. But there’s always ways we can still get around it.”
That’s what Paige Falco, former field education coordinator at the University of North Texas, told AIM’s undercover journalist. The date on the video is June 2025, but the three-minute, heavily edited video was released April 6.
“Our class might be titled something a little different to just not specifically have, DEI… as the class name,” Falco said. “But it’s still an element that’s taught.”
Falco added the university’s social work department continues to prioritize DEI and anti-racism.
“It’s definitely still a focus,” she said, noting that the university’s field instructor training was undergoing changes “to really focus on that competency in particular.”
North Texas Daily reported April 10 that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton called for Falco’s job termination.
Paxton also sent a letter to UNT’s Dean of the College of Public Affairs and Human Science “demanding an explanation of the claims made by the Field Director,” and “a statement detailing UNT’s compliance with the law,” according to an April 10 news release.
On April 10, UNT tweeted on X and confirmed that Falco is no longer employed by the university.
“The views expressed by a UNT staff member in a June video are inconsistent with the university’s commitments and practices as a public institution to comply with state and federal laws and regulations. The staff member is no longer employed by the university,” the statement read.
The University of North Texas’ Office of Media Relations did not respond to The College Fix’s request for comment.
Falco could not be reached for comment by The Fix and her faculty page has been removed.
‘Rejects the claim that DEI is necessary for accreditation’
Guillette told The College Fix the organization focuses on investigating states that have enacted DEI bans at the state level, such as Texas.
He said that they generally visit individuals who previously worked in the DEI department. It is often the case that they have simply changed their job titles and names of their departments, yet continue doing the same exact work.
AIM also prioritizes visiting schools of education, criminology, and sociology, because these are the departments in which DEI continues to be taught most frequently, he said.
“Accuracy in Media contends that social work programs should not require coursework rooted in divisive, ideological frameworks, and rejects the claim that DEI is necessary for accreditation,” the group states on its website.
Additional campuses that have been targeted by AIM include universities in Arizona, North Carolina, Ohio, and Kentucky.
MORE: Another ASU staffer caught on undercover video admitting DEI practices persist
