An Arizona State University Dean was caught on undercover video admitting that Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs continue to thrive at the school, just under rebranded names.
This admission comes as ASU students and faculty lost more than $7.5 million in federal grants last summer due to DEI-related issues.
Accuracy in Media (AIM)released footage showing Chandra Crudup explaining how the university maintains their DEI practices while avoiding any direct terminology or labeling. According to her ASU bio, Crudup is “an Associate Dean in the Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions and a Clinical Associate Professor in the School of Social Work at Arizona State University (ASU). She is the Acting Director of the Studio for Creativity, Place and Equitable Communities.”
When asked by an investigator posing as a prospective student how ASU handles DEI, Crudup was clear.
“We started changing language, but we’re still doing the same thing,” said Crudup. “…to not become a target, we shifted some of our language.”
When asked if there were a DEI ban, Crudup said, “No, there is not … it’s all still happening.”
Crudup said ASU rebranded DEI as “Inclusive Excellence.”
The recent DEI rebranding flub came only months after ASU lost a total of $7,659,588 in National Science Foundation grants related to DEI programming, according to The AZ Free News.
ASU’s “Rebranding” Strategy
ASU’s website prominently features “Inclusive Excellence” as a commitment to the school’s standards in admitting “qualified students.”
In a 2022 ASU newspaper article celebrating the first year of Crudup’s equity and access office, IDEA Scholar Trey Jenkins said, “(The) key to the mission of the IDEA Office is collaborative, active partnerships in creating a Watts College that is inclusive and anti-racist.”
However, some of those DEI strategies continue to backfire for the university.
ASU is already facing a March 2024 lawsuit from the Goldwater Institute challenging the university’s “Inclusive Communities” training requirement, which the Goldwater Institute alleges violates Arizona law prohibiting certain diversity trainings funded with public money.
Now, the question facing policymakers across America is whether rebranding controversial programs constitutes “good-faith compliance” or an attempt to circumvent federal restrictions.
John Sailer, Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, told The College Fix in March of last year that “many DEI programs seem tailor-made to obscure an institution’s real policy and to cover up practices that raise legal red flags. ASU’s program seems to fall into this category.”
As of publication, ASU has not responded to an inquiry from The Dallas Express about the recent video or their current DEI policies.
DEI Patterns in Texas Universities
The DEI omissions from ASU staff members this month appear to mirror patterns DX has previously documented at Texas colleges that violated Senate Bill 17, which banned DEI offices at state-funded universities in January of 2024.
In March 2024, DX identified six universities with job postings containing DEI language that may violate state law, including Texas A&M, UNT, and Sam Houston State.
State Senator Brandon Creighton (R-Conroe), who championed Texas’s SB 17, has previously said: “The elevation of DEI offices, mandatory diversity statements, political litmus tests, and diversity training have the opposite effect and only further divides. DEI programs have become a million-dollar industry at taxpayer-funded institutions – yet they have made no progress advancing or increasing diversity.”
