Alert: Major University Covertly Rebrands DEI Office With Innocuous-Sounding Name
The article discusses the rebranding of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) office at the University of Colorado to the “Office of Collaboration.” This change is perceived as a way to distance the institution from the controversial DEI label without addressing the substantive issues associated with it. Steve McGuire, a fellow at the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, highlighted this shift on social media. While the new office name suggests a fresh approach, critics argue it represents a superficial change rather than a genuine overhaul of the institution’s commitments and practices.
Despite the name change, the content on the new office’s webpage continues to reflect the old DEI principles, albeit with a different presentation. the article warns that such rebranding efforts may be a strategy employed by leftist organizations to maintain their influence in academic and institutional settings, disguising their true agenda under seemingly benign titles like “Office of Collaboration.” The overarching message is a cautionary note for conservatives that while there have been victories against the proponents of wokeness, the underlying ideologies may still persist in different forms.
When offices of diversity, equity, and inclusion become toxic, what is a major university to do?
Do away with them? Pfft. That’s admitting defeat. No, just rebrand it to something that sounds perfectly innocuous. That’s the ticket!
Well, it’s at least the ticket for the University of Colorado, which has quietly renamed its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion department to the Office of Collaboration — all without changing anything of substance.
Steve McGuire, a fellow in campus freedom for the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, helpfully alerted the denizens of X to the shift in terminology:
This is a new one:
The University of Colorado has renamed its DEI office the “Office of Collaboration.” pic.twitter.com/YUVFdCpIaC
— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) January 24, 2025
“This is a new one,” he said along with screenshots of the two pages.
As of right now, the DEI office’s page has been taken offline, but it was last archived by the Wayback Machine at the Internet Archive on Nov. 23.
The opening paragraph of the page — right below a stock photo of three suitably diverse students with preternatural smiles plastered on their faces — proclaims that “the University of Colorado is committed to fostering a diverse, equitible, and inclusive community where all individuals are valued, respected, and supported.”
“We believe that diversity enriches the educational experience and helps to prepare our students for success in a rapidly changing global society,” the site declared. “Through our initiatives and programs, we strive to create a welcoming and inclusive environment for all students, staff, and faculty, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, age, or any other aspect of their identity.”
Now, the Office of Collaboration’s page says that the school “is dedicated to fostering a collaborative community where all individuals are valued, respected, and supported.”
“Our vision is to be a premier, accessible, and transformative public research university that has diverse and inclusive working and learning environments woven into the fabric of our entire organization,” the new website says. “Such environments are crucial to promoting academic excellence, most notably outstanding teaching, learning, research, creative work, meaningful community engagement, and culturally responsive health care.”
Other than that, the stock photo is the same, the “land acknowledgement” — essentially a wokespeak apology to Native Americans for taking their land for the campus — below the paragraph is the same, and the address of the office is the same. Even the phone number hasn’t changed.
Now, ordinarily, this wouldn’t be more than a good laugh, a bunch of Keystone Kops academics running into each other as they clumsily try to contain the backlash against wokeness — especially at colleges and universities, which have the added pressure of complying with the Supreme Court’s ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard. It’s taking the path of least resistance and hoping nobody notices.
However, this is the kind of thing that conservatives need to be aware of. We’ve been busy celebrating win after win against the foes of wokeness — especially in the federal government and corporate America, but also even in academia. While we’re celebrating, however, I fear we haven’t looked hard enough as to whether these are Potemkin victories over leftists who know all too well how to disguise their agenda in protean language.
I have to admit that an “Office of Collaboration” is a new one by me — one wonders if the folks in Boulder realized how much the new title reeked of Vichy France before the rebrand — but the basic idea behind it isn’t. The board of directors or regents or PTA doesn’t want an office of DEI? Fine. They’ll just disband it — and reassemble it under a different name with the same mission.
The left has worked for years to gain a foothold in virtually every major institution in America and used that foothold to spread the gospel of DEI.
Just because America now knows how toxic that message is doesn’t mean the leftists are going to stuff their tails between their legs and go back to doing real work. Their new motto seems to be: DEI is dead, long live DEI.
Remember that the next time you see some “Office of Collaboration” (or similar nonsense) showing up at your school or work. It’s likely nowhere near as benign as it sounds.
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