U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) responded to a series of undercover videos allegedly exposing continuing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies at three universities in the Volunteer State during a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing on Wednesday.
In recent days, undercover videos featuring officials at Belmont University, the University of Tennessee, and Vanderbilt University appear to expose how each institution is defying President Donald Trump’s executive order banning affirmative action and DEI within the federal government.
Last week, an undercover video was published showing Josef Lukey, Belmont University’s assistant director of Student Access and Flourishing, explaining that the decision to move the university’s DEI program to a new office, called “Hope, Unity, and Belonging,” was made to avoid federal scrutiny.
“The HUB is Hope, Unity, and Belonging. That’s DEI, let’s be real,” Lukey said in the video. “The work never stops, we just changed on how we talk about it.”
In another video obtained by Fox News, Will Eakin, a coordinator for the University of Tennessee’s “Access & Engagement” office, said officials at the university are playing “chess” by rebranding its DEI programs to “cater” to the federal education department while continuing to pursue the same agenda.
Eakin claimed Randy Boyd, the president of the University of Tennessee, “cares deeply about access and engagement, and he has been fully committed to the work of DEI and access and engagement.”
On Wednesday, a third undercover video published by Townhall shows Janet Roberts, facilities manager for Peabody College at Vanderbilt University, acknowledging that the university is “heavily supported by federal funding,” while going on to admit that DEI lectures are no longer being “advertised.”
🚨BUSTED: @VanderbiltU's Janet Roberts was CAUGHT ON CAMERA disparaging Sen. Marsha Blackburn and hiding the school's DEI practices.
"God help us…[@MarshaBlackburn's] ridiculous"
"We are heavily supported by federal funding…[so] we're not advertising diversity and… pic.twitter.com/CIxV6FCrwe
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) July 23, 2025
“We’re flying under the radar,” Roberts said in the video, going on to call Senator Blackburn “ridiculous.”
During Wednesday’s Judiciary subcommittee hearing called “Ending Illegal DEI Discrimination & Preferences: Enforcing Our Civil Rights Laws,” Blackburn said she has since spoken with the presidents of two of the Tennessee universities allegedly continuing to embrace DEI policies.
“One of the things this has shown me, looking at all of this video footage the past couple of days, is how deeply rooted the left is in this DEI effort and how they are trying to…keep hold of that DEI effort. They will not let it go,” Blackburn said during the hearing.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Marsha Blackburn” by Marsha Blackburn.
It is so unfortunate for the students who have to listen to and parrot back the DEI swill to get a passing grade. Many of the adults benefiting from DEI programs to include professors have scratched out their own little corner and profess their expertise in DEI. The program is an absolute sham and only prepares the graduate for unemployment and complaining about having to repay the loans they voluntarily collected. I commend Senator Blackburn for her strong stance against this nonsense.
U-T Chancellor Donde Plowman and to a lesser degree President Randy Boyd have been wide open in their support of radical D.E.I. agenda for years. Where has Senator Blackburn been all this time?
She didn’t want to anger the U-T power structure plus a lot of potential donors.
Now that President Trump has been bold in his opposition and the tide has turned dramatically against these left -wing policies Senator Blackburn has joined the parade just in time to help her campaign for governor.