Belmont University, in Nashville, has been caught on camera subverting the law through secrecy and double-speak.
In President Trump's first week in office, he signed executive orders to ban discriminatory DEI programs. Federal agencies, contractors, and educational institutions were required to either end their DEI programs or face potential violations.
Belmont University — where Presidential debates were held in 2008 and 2020 — may not have grabbed the headlines like Harvard, but in secret, the institution has become a bastion for woke Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Sorry, I mean Hope, Unity, and Belonging, but we all know what this office is about. The school got ahead of the curve by renaming its politburo in 2022 (via Belmont Vision):
The Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion will now fall under the umbrella of the Office of Hope, Unity and Belonging – known as the HUB. Belmont hired Baylor University vice provost Lori Baker as vice president for aspirational excellence, which will put the HUB under her purview.
The change comes after the recommendation by a task force to create a more centralized space for DEI.
“We’re going to be changing the title to hope, unity and belonging. Those were the three themes the task force recommended as a way that Belmont could be distinctive and go deeper and broader than other universities,” President Jones said at the Sept. 12 faculty senate meeting.
Jones said that having a vice president over DEI and The Hub will “shape a deeper conversation.”
In an undercover video obtained by Townhall, Jozef Lukey, Assistant Director of Student Success and Flourishing, is caught exposing the rather transparent ruse. The university is trying to continue its DEI programs by simply changing the name from D.E.I. to H.U.B.
“We try to create as an inclusive space as possible here at Belmont," he said in the video. "No, we're not going to be out in the news doing all these things, 'this is how we stand and this is what we stand by.' No, we're not going to make any outward statements.” He admits Belmont is operating in the shadows, in violation of the executive order and federal immigration law.
If playing word games wasn't appalling enough, Belmont University is effectively hiding illegal alien students and protecting them from federal immigration authorities.
In the undercover video, Jozef Lukey, Belmont University Assistant Director of Student Success and Flourishing, said, “We do have undocumented students here.”
"We definitely have to navigate very carefully and just cautiously just because we just don't ever know,” he said. "Especially with the ICE raids that are happening in the city that impacts our campus,” he added.
"We don't communicate to anybody externally who is undocumented, who it is, and so like, yes, we know who it is,” he added. Lukey added that the school intends to be a safe haven for progressivism and apparently illegal immigrants by not being loud, for lack of a better word.
Dangerous illegals are a problem in Tennessee. According to ICE, 196 illegal aliens were arrested in the Nashville area in May alone, including:
- A 37-year-old Venezuelan national Tren de Aragua affiliate gang member.
- A 39-year-old Mexican national with six prior removals from the U.S. and convictions for felony domestic assault and sex with a minor.
- A 28-year-old Mexican national with conviction for reckless aggravated assault.
- A 56-year-old Mexican national with a conviction for drug possession.
- A 60-year-old Iraqi national with a conviction for rape.
- A 33-year-old El Salvadorian national MS-13 affiliate gang member with drug convictions and an active Red Notice for aggravated murder.
Eventually, there will be a point of contact, as kids are bound to encounter the law, especially those in college. Under Tennessee law, police must report interactions with illegal aliens. These students have to come up for air at some point.
Belmont University isn't the first university to try to keep DEI discrimination alive by changing its name.
According to a Defending Education report,
To date, Defending Education has tracked 245 universities which still have institution-wide DEI offices and/or programming in operation, 181 schools or colleges (such as Colleges of Education, Engineering, or Medicine, etc.), with an overall total of 404 currently active DEI offices and programming.
Additionally, 28 institutions and schools/colleges appear to have renamed or rebranded their DEI offices, 18 universities have removed webpages and/or shut down DEI initiatives, and in a few cases, have moved the DEI webpage behind an institutional login. These cases are noted with an archived page of that institution’s former DEI page.
Many university keep their DEI programs intact but rename them to avoid scrutiny. They're not fooling anyone:
The University of Georgia’s Mary Frances Early College of Education appears to have renamed its Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to the Office of Inclusion and Belonging.
Kansas State University appears to have renamed its Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging programming to Access and Opportunity.
George Mason University’s (VA) Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion office appears to have turned into the Office of Access, Compliance, and Community.
Belmont University may think, "If you're navigating in the shadows, nobody's paying attention to Belmont." That's about to change. People will now be paying attention.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration instructed the Department of Homeland Security to rescind a longstanding rule that aimed to avoid immigration enforcement near places where students gather, which were then designated as "sensitive areas." Colleges and other higher education institutions are no longer shielded from ICE, so Belmont can try to 'run silent, run deep' method, but if illegals are on campus, don't be shocked if federal agents come knocking (via Higher Ed Dive):
Colleges will no longer be off limits for immigration enforcement operations under a directive announced by the new Trump administration’s Department of Homeland Security...
The directive ends the practice of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection agents avoiding “sensitive” areas — including elementary and secondary schools, colleges, hospitals and churches — for enforcement actions.
The announcement came on the first full day of President Donald Trump’s second administration. Trump had promised to enforce more border policies throughout his campaign.
It's funny that Lukey mentioned not being loud. It doesn't matter--Columbia is as loud as they come, though for different reasons. The institution has become a de facto terrorist training ground, but the elite school is under a DOJ investigation for, you guessed it, hiding illegal alien students. The school's pro-Hamas antics led to this probe, which was announced last March (via Center Square):
The Justice Department is investigating whether Columbia University concealed “illegal aliens” on its campus as the Trump administration ramps up its campaign to deport foreign nationals who participated in pro-Palestinian protests at the Ivy League school.
Speaking at the Justice Department ... Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the ongoing probe is part of President Donald Trump's "mission to end antisemitism in this country" and foreshadowed other investigations tied to "terrorist" activities on college campuses
"We are also looking at whether Columbia's handling of earlier incidents violated civil rights laws and included terrorist crimes," Blanche said in remarks Friday. "This is long overdue."
It would be best for Belmont to comply with federal immigration law.
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