Campus Reform Features AIM Undercover Video Showing OSU Official on DEI Funding Workarounds
February 18, 2026
An Ohio State University administrator was caught on video admitting that the school has continued to discreetly promote diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in defiance of state and federal law by using corporate grants.
Melissa Newhouse, Senior Executive Assistant to the Dean of the College of Education and Human Ecology, was recorded making the admission to an investigator with Accuracy in Media posing as a parent of a prospective student.
Newhouse admitted that the school has rebranded its efforts to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in the face of legal restrictions, saying, “It’s just more quiet.”
“Because of the law, we had to change signs and centers that were center-specific to one group,” she admitted. “Those close, or they changed them to common, so that whites are there too, you know, not just the underrepresented. They brought the people with the privilege there too.”
Newhouse also claimed that the university is allowed to teach topics related to diversity, inclusion, and intersectionality as long as the course is named accordingly.
She also confirmed that the school has used corporate grants to subvert governmental cuts to DEI funding, saying that it is “just more quiet” and not “university-sponsored.”
“We have a lot of grants for equity and access, and equity and education,” Newhouse explained. “Since they’re funded by Apple, they haven’t been cut…They’re financed and it’s corporate money.”
When approached with footage by AIM president Adam Guillette, Newhouse claimed that it was not her in the video and stated, “That must be AI.” Guillette then attempted to question Erik Porfeli, interim dean of the college, about the footage, but was asked to leave.
Ohio State University is a public university that is subject to both state and federal law regulations that have banned DEI initiatives in institutions of higher education.
Shortly after taking office, President Trump signed the “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity” executive order, which threatens the funding of schools that refuse to enforce anti-discrimination laws.
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