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NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! This story is part of Fox News Digital’s investigative series Campus Radicals. Get the full series here. EXCLUSIVE: One of the top medical schools in the nation is being accused of attempting to hide its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts by moving its DEI office to another location on a restricted floor and continuing its DEI efforts despite the Trump administration's crackdown. "Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis didn’t dismantle its illegal ‘Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion’ regime," America First Legal posted on X. "Instead, they hid their DEI office on a restricted floor. America First Legal found it." The university moved its DEI office from its publicly accessible location on the first floor of the North Medical Building to the 12th floor of the Mid Campus center, according to America First Legal, which says that floor is a "restricted-access floor omitted from the university’s official floor plan." The pro-Trump legal group, who posted on X that the university is trying to "evade accountability," spoke exclusively to Fox News Digital about the importance of their investigation. DOZENS OF PARENTS RIGHTS GROUPS CALL FOR 50 STATE AUDIT TO RID K-12 SCHOOLS OF DEI: 'CLEAN UP THE MESS' "Washington University isn't just quietly keeping its DEI empire alive, it's flaunting it," First Legal attorney Megan Redshaw told Fox News Digital. "No university has been more brazen in its defiance of the law. Rather than dismantle its discriminatory DEI regime, WashU convened a committee to figure out how to keep it alive under a new name and locked it behind closed doors." The committee referenced by Redshaw earlier this year was announced in July and labeled the "Inclusive Excellence Advisory Committee." The committee was described by the school as an effort to "achieve its community-focused goals in support of its students, faculty and staff, while continuing to comply with federal guidance and laws." UNDERCOVER VIDEO REVEALS RED STATE UNIVERSITY EMPLOYEE SUGGESTING DEI IS SIMPLY BEING REBRANDED Universities across the country have seen their federal funding put in jeopardy if they continue to push DEI measures as the Trump administration moves, in part through executive orders, to ban DEI and move toward a focus on meritocracy and policies that don’t operate based on race and gender. As DEI continues to face more scrutiny in universities, government and corporations, Consumers’ Research Executive Director Will Hild told Fox News Digital earlier this year that those entities won’t give up DEI without a fight and will instead start rebranding existing efforts. Washington University School of Medicine has long faced criticism for promoting what critics call a "woke" agenda, including in 2023 when Fox News Digital reported the school taught curriculum that claims the Body Mass Index is steeped in racism and also promoted puberty blockers for children. In 2022, Fox News Digital reported on a lecturer at the medical school caught on camera warning students that if they try to debate her on critical race theory and "systemic oppression," she "will shut that s--- down real fast." In September, America First Legal filed a civil rights complaint with the Department of Justice calling for an investigation into what it called the "most egregious, systemic, and unlawful Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) regimes in the nation." NEW STUDY REVEALS 'STAGGERING' SCOPE OF HOW MUCH DEI WAS INFUSED INTO GOVERNMENT UNDER BIDEN Additionally, the legal group alleged in September that "millions" of taxpayer dollars went from the Biden administration to university projects that "embed racial quotas, ideological training, and identity-based pipelines into medical education." "This is a taxpayer-funded institution operating as if the Supreme Court precedent and federal civil rights laws don't apply to them," Redshaw told Fox News Digital. "Hiding DEI behind restricted access isn't transparency — it's contempt." "America First Legal will not stop until WashU and every other university that thinks it's above the law are held to account. Equal protection is not negotiable, and the era of race-based governance in higher education is over." CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Fox News Digital reached out to the university multiple times for comment but did not receive a response. "As the Supreme Court has made clear, the Constitution and federal law flatly prohibit racial discrimination," America First Legal President Gene Hamilton told Fox News Digital. "The law’s command is ‘leveled at the thing, not the name.’ Institutions that persist in violating this basic principle do so at their own peril. No amount of wordplay or obfuscation will shield them from the serious legal consequences that follow."
