WATCH: DEI still in place as college 'finding ways' around ban, official admits: 'Proud of the fight'

University of Iowa official Drea Tinoco admits staff at the university are "finding ways to operate around" state and federal anti-DEI directives. (Fox News)

The University of Iowa is just the latest school in a salvo of others that have come under fire recently over attempts to rebrand their DEI initiatives in order to skirt state or federal directives ordering them to be terminated. 

Last week, Fox News Digital also obtained undercover footage showing that, despite state and federal orders aimed at dismantling DEI initiatives, school officials at Vanderbilt and the University of Tennessee described a deliberate strategy to rename, repackage and quietly preserve these controversial programs under new labels like "access and engagement" and "belonging and community." 

"It definitely is still here, it definitely still exists," Tinoco can be heard saying on the undercover recording. She also suggests her superiors are supportive of defying orders to dismantle DEI policies at the university, and says that when collaborating with other schools in the state, the University of Iowa staff are typically the most "combative" when it comes to standing in the way of getting rid of DEI policies.

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"On behalf of my office. We are, we're still going to talk about DEI. We're still going to do all the DEI things. My assistant dean is a Black woman, and I could not imagine her being like, ‘Okay guys. Yeah. We're just not going to talk about DEI anymore,'" Tinoco says on the video recording.

"I have yet to be told, like 'Dre, you can't say DEI.' And I'm still going to say it," she adds.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds speaks at the Family Leadership Summit on July 14, 2023 in Des Moines, Iowa. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

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The university responded by insisting it holds its faculty to the highest standards of compliance and any deviation from such compliance "is taken seriously," a spokesperson said in a statement to Fox News Digital, indicating the school would be launching an internal investigation probing the matter. 

The university added that it "will take all necessary steps to ensure university policies and procedures as well as state and federal laws are being fully upheld."

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/watch-dei-still-place-college-finding-ways-around-ban-official-admits-proud-fight