Investigation continues to reveal disguised DEI programs in Kansas education

A Washburn University professor inadvertently confessed to the disguised presence of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) there, making him the second faculty member at the Topeka school just this month to admit to ignoring Kansas’ DEI ban.

WU Director of Student Field Experiences Craig Carter explained to Accuracy in Media’s undercover journalist, who was posing as a student, that even though the university was notified of the DEI ban, it disregarded it. 

“We got a notice to look at all of our stuff and take out the word ‘diversity’ and all that sort of stuff,” he said, adding that it wasn’t done despite the notice.

Kansas Senate Bill 125 was passed last year and bans “DEI positions, programs, training programs, use of state funds for DEI” and requires “removal of gender ideology such as pronouns from employee email signatures.”

Accuracy in Media has been investigating schools in various states with DEI bans, including Kansas, to see if they’re actually complying with the laws.

“A lot of times we use other words for diversity; we talk about inclusion, y’know, and stuff like that,” Carter continued in the undercover video. “But for the most part, I mean, I haven’t changed anything that I say or do in the classroom.”

Accuracy in Media President Adam Guillette attempted to interview Washburn’s Director of Internal Communications and Brand Management Joy Biales. She asked Guillette if Carter knew he was being interviewed by the journalist.

“You can’t just come in. You have to tell people they’re being interviewed. That’s Kansas law,” she claimed to Guillette.

However, Kansas is a “one-party consent” state, which means that as long as one person involved in the conversation consents to being recorded it’s legal, according to the Reporters Committee. The exception is recordings can’t take place in private spaces such as bathrooms.

Guillette countered Biales’ claim with the question: “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.

“The reality of it is that they are taking funding away from schools that are doing that,” Carter said. “But we haven’t been targeted.”

At the beginning of this month, Accuracy in Media’s investigation encountered another Washburn University faculty member who also admitted DEI still exists at the school.

WU Office Coordinator Kandy Horn told the undercover journalist, “the office that was diversity, inclusion and equity has changed and it’s the same principles, different name,” the new name being “belonging.”

Kansas State University also had an employee admit this month to Accuracy in Media they still use DEI under a different name.

Both Washburn faculty members promised the undercover reporter that even though DEI doesn’t exist in name:

“Yeah, it’s there. It’s there,” Carter assured her.

“We do, we absolutely do,” still have DEI, Biales said.