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This story is part of Fox News Digital's Campus Radicals investigative series. Get the full series here.
EXCLUSIVE: One of the nation's leading medical schools is being accused of attempting to obscure its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts by moving its DEI office to another location on a restricted floor and continuing its DEI efforts despite a crackdown from the Trump administration.
“Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis Failed to Dismantle Its Illegal 'Diversity, Equity and Inclusion' Regime,” America First Legal published in 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 plan.”
The pro-Trump legal group, which posted on X that the university is trying to “evade responsibility,” spoke exclusively to Fox News Digital about the importance of its investigation.
DOZENS OF PARENTS' RIGHTS GROUPS CALL FOR 50 STATE AUDITS TO RID K-12 SCHOOLS OF DEI: 'CLEAN UP THE MESS'
Brookings Hall, one of the symbols of Washington University in St. Louis. (Stephen Ehlers/Getty Images)
“The University of Washington is not only 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. Instead of dismantling 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 Redshaw referenced earlier this year was announced in July and called “Inclusive Excellence Advisory Committee”.
The school described the committee as an effort to “achieve its community-focused goals in support of its students, faculty and staff, while continuing to comply with federal laws and guidelines.”
UNDERCOVER VIDEO REVEALS RED STATE UNIVERSITY EMPLOYEE SUGGESTS DEI IS SIMPLY BEING NAME CHANGED
Protesters in Michigan demonstrate against President Donald Trump's anti-DEI policies and denounce federal rollbacks in diversity, equity and inclusion programs. (Dominic Gwinn/Getty Images)
Universities across the country have seen their federal funding at risk if they continue to push DEI measures as the Trump administration moves forward, in part through executive ordersban DEI and move toward a focus on meritocracy and policies that do not operate on the basis of race and gender.
As DEI continues to face increased scrutiny from universities, governments and corporations, Consumers' Research CEO Will Hild told Fox News Digital earlier this year that those entities won't give up on DEI without a fight and will instead begin rebranding existing efforts.
The University of Washington School of Medicine has long faced criticism for promoting what critics call a “woke” agenda, even in 2023, when Fox News Digital reported the curriculum taught in school that claims BMI is steeped in racism and also promotes puberty blockers in children.
In 2022, Fox News Digital reported about a medical school professor caught on camera warning students that if they try to debate her about critical race theory and “systemic oppression,” she will “shut that s— up real quick.”
In September, America First Legal filed a civil rights complaint and the Justice Department called for an investigation into what it called “the nation's most egregious, systemic and illegal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) regimes.”
NEW STUDY REVEALS 'STUNNING' SCOPE OF THE AMOUNT OF DEI INFUSED INTO THE GOVERNMENT UNDER THE OFFER
President Donald Trump listens to a question from a journalist on August 11, 2025 in Washington, DC. A Trump-appointed judge this week blocked the Department of Education's efforts to root out DEI programs in American schools. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP)
Furthermore, the legal group alleged in September that “millions” of taxpayer dollars shifted from the Biden administration to university projects that “incorporate racial quotas, ideological training, and identity-based pipelines into medical education.”
“This is a taxpayer-funded institution that operates as if Supreme Court precedent and federal civil rights laws do not apply to them,” Redshaw told Fox News Digital. “Hiding DEI behind restricted access is not transparency, it is contempt.”
“America First Legal will not stop until WashU and all other universities that think they are above the law are held accountable. Equal protection is non-negotiable, and the era of race-based governance in higher education is over.”
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Fox News Digital reached out to the university several 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 mandate of the law 'addresses the thing, not the name.' Institutions that persist in violating this basic principle do so at their own risk. No punning or obfuscation will protect them from the serious legal consequences that ensue.”
