Image Credit: @DondePlowman / X
The Tennessee Conservative [By Olivia Lupia] –
Three universities in Tennessee have recently been exposed through undercover video for subversive Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policies including rebranding departments and manipulative language, but the University of Tennessee’s Chancellor is pushing back on these allegations, claiming the school is in compliance with all federal laws.
Footage surfaced of University of Tennessee (UT) staffer Will Eaken admitting the school retooled its DEI program in 2023 as “Access and Engagement” so they could “get ahead of the curve” to “make sure access and engagement, which is DEI, could maintain itself”.
Eaken also praised UT’s government relations team for their ability to guide staff and faculty on how to deal with anti-DEI legislation at state and federal levels and boasted about “using language as a tool for protection” in getting around federal mandates and policies.
Leadership at UT, Vanderbilt University, and Belmont University, all having been discovered to be potentially hiding DEI practices and/or enrolling illegal alien students, received letters from U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn on July 23 expressing concern over noncompliance with President Trump’s executive order removing DEI from educational institutions.
“Renaming woke DEI programs to circumvent compliance and public scrutiny degrades the educational experience of your students and the trust placed in institutions of higher education like [UTK]. As a beneficiary of federal funding, UTK has a responsibility to align with the President’s executive order and return to a focus on providing quality education to your students,” Blackburn wrote.
While Belmont has announced it will be undergoing an independent, third-party audit in response to the public and political backlash, UT Chancellor Donde Plowman is standing her ground and asserting Eaken’s statements were inaccurate and misrepresentative of the school’s policies.
“We take your concerns and the matters of compliance seriously, and we can assure you that the statements made by these individuals strongly misrepresent the policies and practices of the university,” Plowman wrote in her response letter, “The University of Tennessee has always complied with both the letter and spirit of the law, and we will continue to take that responsibility seriously.”
But despite the Chancellor’s insistence the school has committed no wrongdoing, her letter also stated, “Compliance with state and federal laws is not optional at our university, and we agree that we have a responsibility to ensure it is ongoing and continuously improved. To that end, UT System President Randy Boyd has launched a systemwide independent review of all access and engagement activities to ensure ongoing compliance on each campus.”
Part of Boyd’s in-house review will require every employee to undergo mandatory compliance training “regarding applicable laws and regulations.”
In an internal email he said, “Let me be clear: access and engagement is not DEI in disguise. All our work must and will remain fully compliant with state and federal law.”
Questions have arisen over the effectiveness and impartiality of Boyd’s internal investigation as Eaken described him as a Republican who “has been fully committed to the work of DEI and access engagement, and he works very closely with government relations when they go to Nashville.”
Sneaky DEI rebrands are not just happening in Tennessee as numerous schools across the nation have been caught concealing DEI departments and policies.
On Wednesday of this week, Fox News obtained video of a University of Iowa official caught on camera bragging about how she and other school employees are working to “operate around” DEI bans and saying she is “proud of the fight”.
Similar videos from conservative watchdog group Accuracy in Media have exposed Western Carolina University, University of North Carolina, and University of South Florida, leading to terminations of some employees.
No such announcements have yet been made for any of the three Tennessee schools.
About the Author: Olivia Lupia is a political refugee from Colorado who now calls Tennessee home. A proud follower of Christ, she views all political happenings through a Biblical lens and aims to utilize her knowledge and experience to educate and equip others. Olivia is an outspoken conservative who has run for local office, managed campaigns, and been highly involved with state & local GOPs, state legislatures, and other grassroots organizations and movements. Olivia can be reached at olivia@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
3 Responses
Let’s face it, they will never stop doing it. We might as well appoint a Watchdog Commission to monitor all of them with the power to discipline them when necessary until order is restored.
And who will watch your Watchdog Commission?? The school will say they didn’t do it and drag it through the courts.
We’d be better off having someone walk around with a gun and a nervous twitch checking on them……
Until lucifer’s dimmercraps are purged from our ejikashun system, the evil will continue. Randy Boyd, IMHO, is worse’n useless.