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Diversity, equity and inclusion efforts are still underway at Washburn University in Kansas despite a state law banning the ideology, according to two recently published undercover videos.
Both edited videos were released this month by Accuracy in Academia, a conservative watchdog group that has over the last year targeted numerous universities across Republican-controlled states with the same sting: catching employees admitting to undercover investigators that they are flouting anti-DEI laws.
At Washburn, located in Topeka, a video published March 18 centers on lecturer Craig Carter with the School of Applied Studies, who told an AIM investigator that employees were told to discontinue DEI but “to my knowledge, we didn’t do any of that here.”
“A lot of times we use other words for diversity,” he was recorded saying on AIM’s hidden camera, according to the group.
“We talk about inclusion, you know, and stuff like that. For the most part, we haven’t been… I mean, I haven’t changed anything that I say or do in the classroom,” Carter said.
Carter did not respond to emails from The College Fix seeking comment.
The other video, released March 4, centers on staffer Kandyce Horn in the president’s office.
“The office that was diversity, inclusion, and equity, it’s changed and it’s more, it’s the same principles, different name,” she told an undercover investigator, adding campus leaders now use the word “belonging” in place of DEI.
Asked whether DEI is active at Washburn, Horn said “absolutely.”
A Washburn spokeswoman did not respond to emailed requests from The College Fix seeking comment.
The comments appear to run afoul of Senate Bill 125, signed into law in March 2025, targeting DEI initiatives at state universities.
Under the law, all state agencies must abolish any positions, policies, preferences, and activities pertaining to DEI. State lawmakers are also considering further legislation to cut millions in funding to public universities that don’t prove to enact sufficient restrictions.
In both videos, Adam Guillette, president of Accuracy in Media, confronts Horn and Carter, asking about their comments. He is largely rebuffed by Washburn staff and administrators, the videos show.
In the video pertaining to Carter, Guillette interviews Washburn’s Director of Internal Communications Joy Biales in a parking lot.
“You can’t just come in. You have to tell people they’re being interviewed. That’s Kansas law,” she said.
Guillette replied Kansas is a “one-party consent” recording state, adding: “If law is so important to you, are you concerned about funding being lost from this university because of not adhering to the DEI law?”
“The video cut off before Biales could answer, but in Carter’s undercover interview, he even acknowledged that some schools are being defunded as a result of breaking the DEI ban,” Heartlander News reported.
Guillette told The College Fix that Kansas is doing a poor job at ending DEI in education, despite its conservative reputation and passing some of the strictest bans on the ideology.
He said in an interview that he believes university employees are truly dedicated to implementing DEI-infused efforts, treating it like a “religion.”
When asked about his experience at Washburn, Guillette said that “they clearly have no ability to control this university, or more likely, they are perfectly happy with DEI to illegally continue to happen.”
Guillette said he believes these programs are embedded in the schools themselves, with teachers being told to teach through an identity politics lenses and staffers continuing to apply the ideology throughout various facets of the system.
For instance, the Washburn “Belonging” page includes links to LGBTQ resources, immigration updates, and the Women’s and Gender Studies minor. It also links “The Intersection,” whose mission is to create a campus which “respects and embraces our intersectional identities.”
To solve this issue, Guillette said red state governors must appoint strong trustees and regents who stick by their convictions and do not bend to educators demanding the inclusion of DEI in education.
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