Undercover videos of professors talking about DEI policies ignite controversy at ASU

A pair of controversial videos released in January purport to show two ASU professors saying the university is still pursuing the spirit of DEI initiatives, even if they’re not using that exact language to describe them.

The videos were produced by an organization that calls itself Accuracy in Media. In them, people posing as prospective students enter the professors’ offices to ask if inclusion and diversity are still part of the university’s curriculum.

The heavily edited videos depict the professors giving answers suggesting the ideas are part of the school’s thinking in terms of how programs are shaped. Videos of a similar nature, also produced by Accuracy in Media, have led to firings at other universities.

State Press reporter Andi Ruiz noticed the videos targeting ASU and reported on them earlier this week. When The Show spoke to Ruiz on Friday morning, she said she was immediately struck by the videos’ confrontational style.

Full conversation

ANDI RUIZ: And so I kind of went down a rabbit hole, and I found that this media watchdog organization, Accuracy in Media, has been doing these "undercover investigations" into multiple universities across the United States, where they send a reporter acting as a prospective student and kind of have them ask questions surrounding if the university is still maintaining DEI policies, if they’re still using DEI language — inclusive diversity, equity language — to kind of get these professors to speak more about it and what the university is doing.

SAM DINGMAN: Yeah. I think it’s fair to say that in the video, the “prospective student” is sort of pitching themselves as somebody who is hopeful that the department in question has "inclusive" policies.

RUIZ: Yes.

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RUIZ: And within these videos, you see the president of Accuracy in Media, Adam Guillette, he goes into their office and confronts them about these undercover videos.

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DINGMAN: To be clear, we should say in these videos, Guillette accuses the professors of “breaking the law.”

ADAM GUILLETTE (in video clip): Our investigators met with administrator after administrator who bragged to us about continuing to push these radical ideas even when they’re against the law.

RUIZ: My first question when seeing these videos was, who is this organization? Why is this kind of a really passionate type of coverage for them, and why are they using these methods? And why Arizona State University?

DINGMAN: What is the current status of DEI restrictions at ASU?

RUIZ: Yeah, so when I was speaking to an ASU spokesperson, they mainly referred me to the Arizona Border Regents Policy Manual that prohibits unlawful discrimination, harassment and retaliation on the basis of a protected class, including also the state constitution, and that prohibits preferential treatment or discrimination using a similar standard.

And so the university just basically said that they fully comply with the federal law and does not discriminate in admissions or scholarship decisions.

And saying that the university still follows these policies and these ordinances.

DINGMAN: Yeah, and the whole situation around DEI in academia is sort of murky at the moment. There was President Trump’s executive order, which stated that if universities wanted to receive federal funding, they had to remove DEI language and officers. That’s not the same as making DEI illegal.

RUIZ: Definitely. And I think, looking at it from a journalism perspective — that’s mainly the reason why I wanted to meet with a media ethics professor to get an expert opinion on this, because I think when you see the video without any prior context, it can be a little misleading, I would say.

And so I felt like it was a really good addition to reach out to Stephen Adler.

DINGMAN: Stephen Adler, who we should say is the director of NYU’s Ethics in Journalism initiative.

RUIZ: Yes. And I think one of the biggest takeaways from his interview is that he doesn’t look at this as journalism, he’s looking at it as a perspective that it’s undercover political activism. And I think that’s a really important part for readers to kind of take away from this.

DINGMAN: Absolutely, absolutely. Well, and you spoke to Adam Guillette as well, who’s the president of Accuracy in Media, the organization that made these videos. He, I believe, used the word ruse to describe what they’re doing.

RUIZ: Yes. So when I went in, my main questions were kind of, “How are you doing this?”, “Why are you doing this?” and “Why do you think it’s important to your audience? Why do you think it’s newsworthy, and why do you think there’s a need for this kind of coverage?”

And he was mainly saying he’s very proud of these reporters and that they’re very skilled reporters that are able to come up with, compile some ruses to get this kind of information from these professors.

I brought up the SPJ Code of Ethics, and I was saying that that’s

DINGMAN: That’s the Society of Professional Journalists.

RUIZ: Yeah. They have their own guidelines for reporters going undercover and these kind of news gathering methods. They recommend that journalists avoid undercover or other methods of gathering information that are kind of, I would say, where you’re kind of lying to your source, unless traditional or open methods will not yield information vital to the public.

So, like, my main question was to him in regards to those guidelines were, what kind of made the decision that you thought this information was so vital to your audience, to the public, that it was necessary for, I would say, a very controversial method in the journalism world?

He mainly said that he did believe that this information was really vital to the public and to feel the need to bring this to light surrounding DEI policies that may be undercover or universities lying to their students, as he would describe.

DINGMAN: He’s calling these people who are pretending to be prospective students and going in and recording these videos, I think he refers to them as “undercover investigative journalists.”

RUIZ: Yes.

DINGMAN: Did he give you their names?

RUIZ: Every time I would kind of ask that question of, “Who are these people? Why are they doing this? How are you getting them doing this?” He would kind of give the very much same answer, saying he’s very proud of these investigators. I would say he would applaud them for being able to get this information.

And, yeah, he would describe them as undercover investigators to be able to get this information. And so I wasn’t able to get the names of the people who were recording these professors.

DINGMAN: So the professors who are shown in the videos. Chandra Crudup, correct?

RUIZ: Yes.

DINGMAN: And Rebecca Loftus. Chandra Crudup is the associate dean of Watts College. Rebecca Loftus is the director of the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice.

In the aftermath of these videos, where they are shown talking about how the university still adheres to the values of inclusivity in principle, what has happened since these videos came out with respect to those two professors?

RUIZ: From what I know in talking to an ASU spokesperson, there has been no change in their employment. Nothing has really happened. I reached out to both of them, and they both declined for a request to comment. And so I would say there has been no changes to their employment or to their status at ASU.

They basically, they declined to comment on it. And ASU kind of said they were aware of this, but they don’t respond to any kind of secret recordings or any content that was featured in it. They just basically said they don’t comment on these and that the employees, that they were not authorized to kind of speak on behalf of the university.

So just like that. And so mainly the reason why I wanted to bring this article to light is that much of the ASU community did not know that this was happening.

DINGMAN: These types of videos.

RUIZ: Yeah, these type of videos. And I thought it was really important coverage, not only for students but also for professors as well.