U. Missouri launches investigation into professor caught admitting DEI efforts persist– www.thecollegefix.com

School has ended DEI research projects, spokesperson says

The University of Missouri is investigating a professor after he was secretly recorded admitting that diversity, equity, and inclusion activities persist at the university.

In a video released by the watchdog group Accuracy in Media, MU Sociology Department Chair Wayne Brekhus discussed the department’s continued DEI involvement despite state restrictions.

“Lots of us do DEI types of research and things like that. I do things with identities and inequalities and used to do a lot of LGBTQ research and things like that,” Brekhus told an undercover investigator.

Asked about the state lawmakers’ anti-DEI directives, Brekhus said they “haven’t hit the curriculum.”

He also described ways institutions have been able to bypass Missouri’s DEI restrictions.

“Usually what places did is, like, they changed the name or they put them under a different umbrella to make it less visible that it was DEI or things like that,” he said.

“It was mostly cosmetic, but in some cases that also meant, you know, if you’re folding it under another umbrella that isn’t explicitly listed as DEI, sometimes that means you’re cutting staff or you’re making it less visible to the students. So, like, those sorts of things have happened really everywhere,” he said.