ALPolitics Covers AIM Investigation into University of Alabama DEI Workarounds
June 23, 2026
Dr. Bill Chitwood
23 Jun 2026
An undercover investigation released June 8, 2026, is putting new pressure on the University of Alabama, after a campus DEI official was recorded describing what the report characterizes as deliberate efforts to work around the State’s 2024 ban on diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.
The findings, published by Accuracy in Media (AIM), allege that DEI-related activity at the University may not have simply faded in response to Alabama’s SB129 law, but instead might have been reshaped in ways that preserve core functions while avoiding formal labels that would trigger enforcement.
SB129, signed into law in October 2024, prohibits public universities from maintaining DEI offices, funding DEI programs, or requiring DEI-related training. The law was designed to eliminate institutional favoritism and identity-based programming in State higher education. Critics, meanwhile, have argued it is broadly written and difficult to enforce in practice. The statute remains in effect while related legal challenges move through federal court, including ongoing litigation over its constitutionality and scope.
Against that backdrop, AIM’s undercover recordings claim to show how University staff adapted to circumvent both the letter and the spirit of SB129.
According to AIM’s report, an individual involved in DEI programming at the University of Alabama described navigating what they saw as weaknesses in the law’s structure. The official is quoted in the report as having “bragged about finding holes in the system” that allowed DEI-related work to continue in modified form, despite State restrictions.
The report further alleges that rather than halting DEI efforts outright, programs were being restructured and rebranded in ways that made them less visible to oversight. In another quoted passage cited by AIM, the official suggested that DEI work had not ended but had been adjusted in presentation, stating it was continuing “without calling it that anymore.”
The official can be heard on the video saying “When I read the draft of the bill, people were calling me like, ‘This is blasphemy.’ I said it’s actually stupid because I found some holes.” The official continued, stating “Most of our faculty and staff are progressive. It’s always the ones you least likely expect to be progressive.”
Taken together, the comments are presented by AIM as evidence that at least some University personnel viewed SB129 not as a hard stop on DEI activity, but as a compliance challenge to be managed through language shifts and administrative restructuring rather than full elimination of programs, as the University reported doing in 2024.