A newly released video of University of West Alabama dean of students Byron Thetford shows Thetford admitting to searching for loopholes to fund DEI programming.
"We can't directly fund DEI programming, so we have been looking for loopholes," Thetford said.
Last year, Gov. Kay Ivey signed into law a ban on taxpayer resources from funding DEI offices and training in Alabama public universities, schools and agencies.
The video, posted by Accuracy in Media, appears to be from a job interview.
"So, part of this position would be working with some of that," Thetford said. "We have some funds through our PBI grant that we would like to dedicate to that, and then we do still have a chief, we have somebody who is serving – which, I have to be careful – we have somebody who is serving as our chief diversity officer currently. They are flexing out of that role because we have to, for state purposes, and if we want to continue to have state funding, we had to discontinue all DEI programs."
Thetford said the programs do not have to go away completely, but they can't use state funds, although they were looking at ways to use payroll, which mostly comes from state funds. He confirmed the work would still be done, just under a different title.
UWA has not responded to a media request by 1819 News.
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