Kansas State official on DEI: “You can’t take it out”

Kansas State official on DEI: “You can’t take it out”

In an undercover video obtained by Accuracy in Media, Lindsey Thyer, an Academic Advisor in the College of Education at Kansas State University, admits that the university intentionally renamed diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) content to avoid legal scrutiny. Kansas has passed legislation to curb DEI initiatives at postsecondary institutions, raising the possibility that Kansas State University could be acting in defiance of state and federal mandates and risk its federal funding.

“I’ve learned that the philosophy here is, like, while they are saying they are going to take [DEI] away — like, changing the name of things — they’re still doing it,” stated Thyer on the hidden recording.

“You can’t take it out. That’s not quality teaching.”

Later in the recording, Thyer recounts a conversation with a student who said they were being taught in a course that the current administration is “the worst presidency ever.”

“That is refreshing,” stated Thyer.

In August 2025, Kansas State faced criticism over the alleged rebranding of its closed DEI office. Although the office was renamed the “Office of Access and Opportunity,” it continued to use similar language and training materials on topics such as “microaggressions” and “intersectionality.”

The 2024 Kansas House Bill 2105, or “Removing DEI from Postsecondary Institutions,” requires each public university to “share publicly on such institution’s website all training materials used for students and faculty on matters of nondiscrimination, DEI, race, ethnicity, sex, or bias and such institution’s policies and guidance on such matters.” Recently, Senate Bill 125 aimed to totally strip funding from any public institutions in Kansas that maintain “mandates, policies, programs, preferences and activities relating to diversity, equity and inclusion.”

Similar undercover investigations exposing hidden DEI programming have been reported at several public institutions, including Arizona State University, the University of Utah, North Carolina A&T State University, the University of Kentucky, Ohio State University, and the University of Virginia.

Despite sweeping anti-DEI legislation in states like Kansas, CriticalRace.org has identified several public universities that are finding new and increasingly creative ways to implement DEI in the curriculum.

Even with Texas’s all-encompassing Senate Bill 17 in effect, which prohibits public universities from maintaining DEI offices, officers, programs, and mandatory activities, Stephen F. Austin State University was found to be still pushing DEI in its College of Education. The Professional Counseling Master’s Program curriculum aims to “foster cultural competence among students to understand and address the unique needs of diverse client populations, including but not limited to differences in ethnicity, culture, socioeconomic status, gender, sexual orientation and ability.”

The “Arkansas Access Act” prohibits state institutions from “[complying] with any institutional accreditation requirement related to DEI.” Yet, the University of Arkansas’ Fulbright College of Arts & Sciences states that all majors at Arkansas are “required to complete a 3-credit cultural diversity course.”

When confronted with the undercover video, Kansas State official Lindsey Thyer confirmed that she appeared in the recording but declined to comment on the legality of the conversation or whether the discovery could jeopardize the university’s federal funding.

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