“Our Job is to Push Back”: Defiant DEI Defenders Continue Work Under New Labels at UT Arlington
April 13, 2026
Texas has banned Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs in public universities, but newly obtained undercover footage suggests the underlying content may still be taught—just under different names.
Posing as a prospective student, an Accuracy in Media investigator met with Melissa Cruz, an Academic Recruiter in Social Work at the University of Texas at Arlington, to ask how the school is handling the changes.
Cruz made clear that while certain DEI-related terms are no longer used, the material itself has not gone away.
“There’s like a hundred words that are banned now… DEI stuff,” Cruz said. “The professors already know what’s going on… they still talk about what they need to talk about.”
She explained that faculty have adjusted their language to stay within the law while continuing to cover the same topics.
“They still hit on topics that would be around DEI—they just don’t use those words that would get them in trouble.”
Cruz also acknowledged that coursework tied to DEI has been renamed rather than removed.
“We still have to cover the content…it’s a huge part of what we do,” she said. “Before they were called ‘cultural competency hours,’ now they are just called ‘human service hours.’”
“The intention is still the same. The research is still the same. The practice is still the same—it’s just called something different now.”
When asked directly whether subjects like race and gender are still part of the curriculum, Cruz responded, “Yes.”
She pointed to accreditation requirements as one reason the material remains in place, referencing the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE), which sets national standards for social work programs.
“We still have to abide by… governing bodies,” Cruz said. “They follow national legislation… and that passes down to us. At the state level, that is totally different.”
“Rest assured, the work that we do is still the same—it’s just classified differently.”
Cruz also described the role of social work programs in advancing what she characterized as social justice goals.
“Our job is to push back and to cause good trouble,” she said, noting that many of those themes are already built into required coursework.
Accuracy in Media contends that social work programs should not require coursework rooted in divisive, ideological frameworks, and rejects the claim that DEI is necessary for accreditation. Instead it points to Florida, which enacted restrictions on DEI in higher education, as evidence that universities can operate without embedding identity-based concepts into their required curricula.
Visit DEIinTexas.com to send a message to university trustees and the state Attorney General. No taxpayer should be forced to fund illegal DEI in the state of Texas.