For any conservative tempted towards a sense of triumphalism over the slow death of DEI programs, I submit the University of Missouri School of Medicine as an object lesson in why vigilance is imperative.
According to a report from the Washington Free Beacon on Thursday, the school is now demanding to be taken off a list of schools that maintain DEI offices despite the fact that its old DEI office has been, effectively, merely renamed and given a fresh coat of camouflage paint.
The letter, to medical watchdog organization Do No Harm — which maintains a list of medical institutions that ascribe to radical ideology in care or hiring and admissions practices — also requested that the organization take a look at the school’s “C” grade in the Medical School Excellence Index.
That index looks at not only the standards of the institution but whether admissions and grading policies are influenced by leftist ideology. In the Oct. 9 letter, the school maintains that the “C” grade was in response to the DEI office being rebranded while the university claimed that it had been dissolved.
“This information is not correct because the University of Missouri-Columbia dissolved its Inclusion, Diversity and Equity division in 2024 and, consistent with that campus-wide action, the School of Medicine does not have a DEI office,” the letter from the school read.
“The School’s listing on your organization’s website appears to be based on language on the School’s webpage for Community, Professional Proficiency and Student Success (CaPS),” the letter continued.
“CaPS is not a DEI office and does not operate programs that use race eligibility or preferences.”
“Based on this information, we respectfully request that your organization remove the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Medicine from its list of medical schools with DEI offices and re-consider its assigned grade in the Medical School Excellence Index.”
It is true that, in July of 2024, the University of Missouri disbanded its DEI office; according to Inside Higher Ed, the university president said “reorganization would allow Missouri to avoid budget cuts from anti-DEI state legislators and steward its own transition to what he saw as an inevitable outcome in a deep-red state.”
Is DEI a threat?
“We want to ensure we have a positive dialogue with [lawmakers] that support our university,” said University of Missouri president Mun Choi. “We believe this offers a sustainable path forward.”
“It’s important that we do not become an institution that excludes in the name of inclusion.”
And so, we have CaPS … which is run by the University of Missouri School of Medicine’s former dean for diversity and inclusion, Laura Henderson Kelley. As late as February of 2025, CaPS’ website said that it operated under the “Inclusive Excellence Framework” … which was developed by the University of Missouri’s DEI office. And, a quick look an archived version of the website for the DEI program reveals that CaPS runs many of the same programs.
Which is why Ian Kingsbury, Do No Harm’s director of research, told the Free Beacon that this was effectively just the DEI office, disguised so that the university could get funding in a red state with a Republican administration.
“Some medical schools look to be fully compliant with Trump’s [executive order] on DEI,” Kingsbury said.
“Others continued on as if nothing happened and still feature offices labeled ‘Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.’ But some have tried to split the difference, rebranding the office but maintaining the same functions and even the same personnel. We believe UM Columbia is one such example of this phenomenon.”
This is how wokeness works — as can be evinced by looking at the term wokeness itself. Remember when James Carville — the Democratic strategist who occasionally commutes to reality, even if he doesn’t really live there — blamed “woke” ideology for Terry McAuliffe’s loss in the 2021 Virginia gubernatorial election?
The average response was like this one from Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, which was, in TL;DR form: “Oh, we don’t even use that word anymore, stop accusing us of doing something we don’t do.”
How can news outlets even attribute words to me I didn’t say?
I said there are limits to trying to mobilize a campaign with a 100% moderate strategy without mobilizing the base. Said nothing abt “wokeness” which is a term almost exclusively used by older people these days btw https://t.co/p08uDafZHX
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) November 5, 2021
Similarly, now that DEI has become poison both reputationally and to the bottom line for institutions dependent on either consumers or government money, nobody has DEI departments anymore … except for the DEI departments that they’ve rebranded and performed subtle language, if not mission, shifts upon.
The issue here isn’t just that one major university did this. If it were, this would be one of those Captain Renault “I’m shocked — shocked!”-type of stories. Rather, the issue is that one more major university did this.
In January, just days after Trump’s inauguration, people began noticing that the University of Colorado had rebranded its DEI office as the “Office of Collaboration.”
This is a new one:
The University of Colorado has renamed its DEI office the “Office of Collaboration.” pic.twitter.com/YUVFdCpIaC
— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) January 24, 2025
And, at the prestigious California Institute of Technology, the assistant vice president for diversity, equity, inclusion, and assessment got a “promotion” to the “associate vice president for campus climate, engagement, and success” back in April — without any noticeable substantive change in her mission, from all appearances.
You can name a DEI office whatever you want; call it the “Department of Awesome Monster Truck Rallies and Heckin’ Good Doggos.”
It’s still a DEI office and, under President Donald Trump’s executive order, still not permissible. No amount of vague attempts at intimidating groups or individuals who notice (including this unintentionally hilarious and revealing letter from Mizzou) should change any of those things.
The problem is, if we think the fight is won, this laughable workaround could — sadly — work. There are many miles to go before DEI sleeps, no matter what it’s called, and trod them we must.
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