An official at Nashville’s Belmont University has been caught on camera bragging about the University dodging federal laws and Trump Executive Orders regarding DEI through secrecy and word games.
President Trump signed Executive Orders his first week in office banning discriminatory DEI programs. Federal agencies, contractors, and educational institutions were required to either end their DEI programs or face potential penalties.
Belmont University appears to be evading the directives by having renamed their campus-wide woke Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) program Hope, Unity, and Belonging (HUB) in 2022. Despite the name change the purpose and focus seems to have remained the same.
“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, 2022 faculty Senate meeting.
Jones said that having a vice president over DEI and The Hub will “shape a deeper conversation.”https://www.belmontvision.com/post/belmont-launches-office-of-hope-unity-and-belonging-will-include-diversity-equity-and-inclusion
But despite some fancy wordsmithing, the truth has been revealed in an undercover video that has gone viral nationally, drawing millions of views on “X”and is even attracting outrage by members of Congress, like congressman Andy Ogles of Tennessee.
Jozef Lukey, Assistant Director of Student Success and Flourishing, is revealed on video bragging about how the university is attempting to hide their embrace of illegal alien students, including housing them on campus, which may violate a recently enacted Tennessee law making it criminal to harbor illegal aliens for financial benefit. Under the law that went into effect July one , harboring or concealing an undocumented immigrant for financial gain is classified as a Class E felony, carrying 1-6 years in prison and a fine of up to $3,000.
“We try to create as an inclusive space as possible here at Belmont,” Lukey 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.
Lukey went on to admit that Belmont University is effectively hiding illegal alien students and protecting them from federal immigration authorities.
In the undercover video he 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 being secretive.
Clearly not secret any longer. Congressman Ogles has now sent a letter to the Education Secretary calling for an investigation into Belmont University.Rep. Ogles said he penned this letter to Secretary Linda McMahon in reference to the leaked video.
In his letter Ogles notes:
“Belmont University claims to be a Christian school rooted in Biblical principles, but its teachers deal in deception.
President Trump has rightly demanded that all colleges and universities dismantle their DEI cartel or risk losing federal funding. So why are Belmont officials on camera bragging about their ‘clever’ scheme to simply rename their DEI offices and keep pushing the same agenda?
I just sent a letter to @EDSecMcMahon demanding a full investigation into Belmont—and, if necessary, a cut to their funding.
Not in Tennessee. Not on my watch.”
Ogles has asked Sec. McMahon for a compliance review of Belmont’s HUB operation, for her to issue guidance on “cosmetic name changes,” and for a report to Congress on DEI rebranding across federal institutions.
Small Business Administrator Kellie Loeffler recently appeared on the Belmont campus announcing a $100 million State Trade Expansion Program (STEP) federal grant to the university. She joined a panel discussion with Belmont President Dr. Greg Jones and Tennessee Commissioner of Economic and Community Development Stuart McWhorter regarding the role of small businesses in Tennessee. In the event that Belmont’s activities could be determined in violation of the law and executive orders, that grant and other federal funds received by Belmont could potentially be clawed back by the Trump administration.
