University of Utah Faces Scrutiny Over DEI Practices After HB261
FIRST ON FOX: A conservative watchdog released video claiming University of Utah administrators may be keeping diversity, equity, and inclusion programs alive despite a new state law meant to curb those practices. The claim centers on how the campus talks about and markets its programs after HB261. That tension has fueled a larger debate about academic freedom and compliance.
“No, no comment,” University of Utah education coordinator Lucas Alvarez told Accuracy in Media when asked about an allegation he was pushing DEI in violation of a 2024 law aimed at curbing DEI practices inside state universities. The short reply came during a recorded exchange that watchdogs have circulated. The clip quickly became the focal point for critics who say the university is trying to duck scrutiny.
Accuracy in Media President Adam Guillette then showed Alvarez video of him explaining the current DEI practices at the university. In that footage Alvarez acknowledged the campus is navigating HB261 while keeping some programs active. His remarks about messaging set off the biggest alarms among opponents.
“We’re still, I think, figuring out as we go, like, HB261,” Alvarez said in the video. “It’s complicated, I mean, like, the programs that we’re doing, I think technically we’re still allowed to do them, but they have to be marketed in a certain way.” That phrasing left critics wondering whether DEI work was being rebranded to skirt the law.
When pressed on the word “marketing,” Alvarez declined to elaborate further on camera. The exchange raised questions about whether some campus efforts are being shifted into different administrative pockets. Those questions landed squarely on the university’s leadership to respond.
Alvarez was also pressed about another comment he made on video suggesting DEI was still a focus at the university, explaining that his department has been “meeting with a lot of campus partners” to do the “strategic work” of being in “compliance” but pointing out that these partners have “academic freedom.” LeiLoni McLaughlin, the university’s director of the Center for Community & Cultural Engagement, said she interpreted his remarks differently.
“I think what he was referring to was the professors have academic freedom to do research and speak from their expertise in the field that they’ve studied,” LeiLoni McLaughlin, the university’s director of the Center for Community & Cultural Engagement, told Guillette when asked what Alvarez meant. Guillette pushed back, noting Alvarez suggested things were shifting. “He kind of suggested that they shifted things over to the professors though,” Guillette said, prompting McLaughlin to call that a “false statement.”
McLaughlin told Guillette the entire campus has had to adapt since the law passed. “I think with the legislative changes, every university has had to shift,” McLaughlin said. When Guillette asked whether that meant shifting actions or merely shifting how programs are described, the back-and-forth ended with a two-word answer: “Both,” McLaughlin answered.
A university spokesperson told Fox News Digital in a statement, “I reject the assertion that the university is hiding diversity work with rebranding and remarketing.” “The changes required under HB 261 transformed how we support student success, recruit faculty, celebrate events and create a sense of belonging on our campus,” the statement continued. The school also emphasized that Alvarez is not an official university spokesperson and that McLaughlin’s comments aligned more closely with leadership.
Officials have already taken steps to comply, including closing identity-based resource centers, moving DEI staff into other roles, and banning diversity statements in hiring. Students and community groups pushed back, saying those shifts erased support structures. The university says the moves were legal adjustments, not concealment.
“This isn’t about one or two bad apples — it’s about a broken system,” Guillette said about the footage. “Utah needs a Kansas-style DEI ban with a reporting mechanism and actual legal consequences. And more importantly, America’s university system needs to be fundamentally reshaped with a focus on education rather than activism.” Those remarks reflect a wider Republican argument for stricter enforcement.
Republican leaders and administrators nationwide have already forced major rollbacks of DEI policies in favor of merit-based standards. Critics warn institutions will try to rebrand DEI under friendlier labels rather than abandon the programs. “At first, they just pushed back on, tried to defend DEI itself, but when that became so obvious that what DEI really was anti-White, anti-Asian, sometimes anti-Jewish discrimination in hiring and promotion, they abandoned that,” Consumers’ Research Executive Director Will Hild told Fox News Digital earlier this year.
Hid added, “It is the exact same toxic nonsense under a new wrapper, and they’re just hoping to extend the grift, because a lot of these people — I would say most of the people — working in DEI are useless.” That blunt assessment sums up why watchdogs are watching every word and program change at public universities like Utah. The fight now is over transparency, enforcement, and what belongs inside a classroom.
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