Blackburn Accuses Tennessee Universities of Concealing DEI Programs

Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., on Thursday claimed that university employees in Tennessee are "concealing woke DEI programs" that President Donald Trump prohibited in an executive order.

In letters sent to three universities in Tennessee, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Vanderbilt, and Belmont University, Blackburn claimed that employees were secretly "concealing woke DEI programs by renaming them while continuing to push the harmful content."

She wrote in a letter to UTK that "Leaked footage shows UTK employees discussing how the University is concealing woke DEI programs by renaming them while continuing to push the harmful content."

Blackburn wrote that "In one video, a UTK employee said that the DEI programs had not been abandoned and, '[They have] been fully committed to the work of DEI.' He goes on to say, 'these committees and task forces were built back in 2020 and they're still up and running...it's just in terms of some of these bills...they know how to navigate the language within the bills to ensure that DEI is protected.'"

During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Blackburn added that "Some of these professors who are so given to DEI will not let it go and so they take other programs and they’re telling people 'well this is how we’re getting to DEI' 'this is how we're covering it up,' 'this is how we're using the language to form work arounds.'" 

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