‘You Won’t Find It By Googling’: U Of Iowa Official Caught On Camera Admits ‘DEI Work’ Still Happens

University of Iowa administrator Cory Lockwood was caught on camera admitting that the university has not stopped its work in the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) space, but instead has changed the terminology around it.

Townhall released undercover video of Lockwood talking about how the state legislature — in accordance with President Donald Trump’s administration and its agenda — had attempted to put an end to DEI in education. He explained that the school was continuing the work, but had to adopt different words to describe the initiatives in order to protect the funding that was at risk for those who did not comply.

WATCH:

🚨NEW — Undercover video catches University of Iowa administrator Cory Lockwood ADMITTING to BURYING DEI initiatives so that they’re hidden from “that side.”

“There’s DEI work happening. Somebody’s not gonna have that in their job description because of the State House.”

“What… pic.twitter.com/x37xUsvgui

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) July 31, 2025

“You won’t find it by Googling it, because of our state legislature,” he said of DEI initiatives at the school. “Governor, State House, they’re all <sigh> that side, so they’ve directed the Board of Regents to — I don’t know if ‘eliminate’ is the right word — but stop using the words.”

Lockwood went on to make it clear the the school was doing what it could to abide by the letter of the law while actively undermining the spirit, saying, “So you’ll see words like ‘community’ and those types of things, ‘belonging,’ ‘community,’ all those — we still have cultural centers here. There’s DEI work happening, I think, you know, somebody’s not gonna have that in their job description because of the State House.”

“Just to be candid, I think what most are worried about is funding, you know, because — state-funded institutions,” he added.

Townhall released a series of similar videos over the last several weeks, revealing that the same strategy — keeping the DEI initiatives, but hiding them behind relatively benign language — had already been adopted by a number of schools across the United States.