EXPOSED: SMU’s “Hidden” DEI Operation
August 31, 2026
Think private universities are abandoning DEI? Think again.
An undercover investigation by Accuracy in Media has exposed what an official at Southern Methodist University in Dallas described as an effort to “maneuver” DEI-related work, rename offices, and continue programs under a different banner.
Danielle Palomo, Coordinator for Community Engagement, Social Change, and Intercultural Engagement at SMU, spoke candidly to an undercover Accuracy in Media journalist about the university’s DEI efforts.
Her description was remarkably straightforward.
“As you can probably imagine, we’ve had to do a lot of maneuvering in order to remain kind of hidden under a lot of things,” Palomo said. “But as long as we can keep doing what we’re doing even to a smaller capacity, that is what we’re gonna do. We’re going to do our best.”
According to Palomo, DEI-related training is now housed through SMU’s Office of Cultural Intelligence. She also acknowledged that her own office has conducted similar training for students in the past.
Palomo explained what happened to SMU’s former Office of Diversity and Inclusion.
“It was the Office of Diversity and Inclusion which is now the Office of Cultural Intelligence,” Palomo said. “And their training, we helped facilitate that training. We helped train the training. So that office still exists just under a different name.”
The Office of Diversity and Inclusion became the Office of Cultural Intelligence and, according to Palomo, “that office still exists just under a different name.”
When the AIM investigator asked whether an employee whose title now referenced “Cultural Intelligence” had previously been the university’s DEI officer, Palomo answered simply:
“Yes.”
Palomo also described a university carefully navigating the changing political environment surrounding DEI.
“The university is definitely minding its P’s and Q’s and it’s slowly, like, working to, like rename things and maybe do away with things,” she said.
Palomo added that she was “a fan of renaming things.”
These statements raise a simple question for SMU leadership and trustees:
If the university has truly moved away from DEI, why does an employee describe the former Office of Diversity and Inclusion as still existing under another name, and why was there a need to keep this work “hidden” in the first place?
Changing the label doesn’t answer that question.
Visit SaveSMU.com to send a message directly to the trustees of Southern Methodist University and demand answers about the university’s DEI programs.