Medical schools across the United States are quietly renaming their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) offices while largely preserving the same ideological infrastructure that has drawn growing scrutiny from the Trump administration and conservative watchdogs.
According to Fox News, a new investigation by CriticalRace.org found that several prominent medical schools have shifted away from explicit DEI branding, instead adopting softer labels such as belonging, engagement and excellence, even as the underlying programming remains substantially intact. The report, which examined six institutions, comes as President Donald Trumps second-term executive actions have intensified pressure on higher education and medical institutions that rely on race- and sex-based preferences, raising questions about whether these rebranding efforts are genuine reforms or merely cosmetic adjustments designed to evade federal oversight.
CriticalRace.orgs review concluded that the changes are largely superficial, with DEI-style initiatives continuing under new names and slightly revised language. "The rebranding is not really meaningful in a sense," William Jacobson, a Cornell Law School professor and founder of the Equal Protection Project, told Fox News Digital. "The programming hasn't changed and a lot of the examples, and I think there's a couple in our report, they simply shift programs over to a different department or under a different name, but the programming hasn't really changed."
The report focused on Drexel University College of Medicine, Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University, and the University of Nevada-Reno School of Medicine (UNR Med). CriticalRace.org found that these schools frequently replaced explicit DEI branding with more anodyne terms, suggesting an effort to preserve the same ideological commitments while reducing the political visibility of those programs.
Jacobson argued that the new terminology is little more than a rhetorical smokescreen for the same race-conscious and identity-focused agenda that has dominated progressive academia for years. "You see all of these euphemisms for critical race theory, all of the euphemism, frankly, for race discrimination popping up, and that's the rebranding that we're talking about, and that is what we've documented at six particular medical schools," Jacobson told Fox News Digital. "Medical schools are the worst when it comes to DEI."
At Drexel University College of Medicine, the report notes that the former Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion has been folded into a new entity called the Office of Community Health and Inclusive Excellence. In an announcement, Drexel said the office "incorporates the functions of the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and the former Office of Community Health & Health Equity, to better align and strengthen the Colleges resources to address inclusivity across missions," and the schools website indicates that the office continues to sponsor a Diversity Week and a Diversity in Medicine Research Symposium.
The Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell has taken a similar approach, rebranding its DEI office as the "Office of Engagement & Excellence," according to the CriticalRace.org report. Despite the new name, the offices featured events still include student-led "Safe and Brave Spaces" and "Diversity Night," signaling that the ideological thrust of the programming remains unchanged.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Hofstra University spokesperson Terry Coniglio defended the schools approach while emphasizing legal compliance. "The Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell supports all students while remaining consistent with its institutional values and applicable law," Coniglio said.
Northwestern Universitys Feinberg School of Medicine, which previously maintained a DEI office, has now replaced it with an Office of Health Equity, the report states. That office offers "Safe Space Training," which CriticalRace.org notes is open to students, trainees, staff and faculty and is designed to educate LGBTQIA+ allies, reflecting the continued prominence of identity-based initiatives under a different label.
The Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University has also restructured its DEI apparatus, according to CriticalRace.org, which cited a 2025 Campus Reform report. Campus Reform reported that the school renamed its Office of Health Equity, Diversity and Inclusion to the Office of Strategic Partnership in Health, Education and Resources (SPHERE), a unit that still promoted "equity" programs despite the more bureaucratic-sounding title.
At the University of Nevada-Reno School of Medicine, the report suggests that DEI functions have been shifted rather than dismantled, moving from the Office of Diversity and Inclusion to the universitys Multicultural Center. The universitys website describes the Multicultural Center as "a critical hub of cultural, LGBTQIA+, gender-focused services, programs and social justice initiatives that support student success and increase graduation rates of students at the University of Nevada, Reno," and the webpage includes a DEI statement, underscoring that the ideological framework remains embedded in campus life.
When asked what became of its Office of Diversity and Inclusion, UNR Med told Fox News Digital that the structure had been reorganized but not eliminated. The school said that "in line with multiple unit reorganizations within the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine the deans staff currently includes an associate dean for inclusive excellence but does not include a named office."
UNR Med further emphasized that the Multicultural Center is a university-wide entity, not a medical school-specific office, and framed its mission in terms of student support rather than admissions or recruitment. The center, the school explained, serves as "a student support and engagement center dedicated to fostering belonging, cultural understanding and student success."
The medical school also stressed that the Multicultural Center is not involved in the gatekeeping functions that have raised legal concerns in the DEI debate. "The Multicultural Center does not conduct student recruitment, admissions or enrollment services; its primary focus is supporting students once they are part of the university community and helping create an inclusive environment," UNR Med told Fox News Digital.
UNR Med insisted that it operates within the bounds of the law and accreditation requirements, signaling awareness of the heightened federal scrutiny. The school said it "abides by accreditation standards related to curricular programming, student admissions and faculty recruitment" and that it "remains compliant with all federal laws and guidelines, as well as state law, the Nevada Constitution and the U.S. Constitution."
Fox News Digital reported that Drexel University College of Medicine, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University were contacted for comment but did not immediately respond. Their silence leaves unanswered how these institutions justify the continued presence of DEI-style initiatives under new branding at a time when federal policy is moving decisively toward race-neutral standards.
Upon returning to office in 2025, President Trump signed a series of executive orders aimed at rolling back DEI across government, education and other sectors of American life. Jacobson acknowledged that these measures have had a tangible effect, but he argued that many in academia remain deeply committed to DEI as an article of faith rather than a neutral administrative framework, describing it as a "religion on campuses."
According to Jacobson, many university leaders are simply waiting out the current political climate, hoping for a future administration that will restore and expand DEI mandates. "The schools, particularly the medical schools, are hanging on to DEI, like survivors on a shipwreck, and they're hoping for a rescue, and they think their rescue is going to be Democrats getting control of the federal government again, because then all the DEI will come back. They're not giving it up," Jacobson told Fox News Digital.
While DEI has long been entrenched in humanities and social science departments, Jacobson warned that its spread into medical education poses a distinct and more serious threat. He argued that identity-based preferences and ideological litmus tests in medicine "destroy confidence in the system," leading patients to question whether their doctors were selected and trained on the basis of merit or political criteria.
"When this sort of race-based focus, when this sort of identity group focus happens in medicine, it's extremely destructive," he added. From a conservative perspective, this concern goes to the heart of public trust in a profession that must be grounded in competence, objectivity and equal treatment under the law, not ideological fashion.
Jacobsons alarm is not merely theoretical; he has personally challenged race-conscious policies in healthcare. In 2022, he served as the plaintiff in a lawsuit contesting New York State guidance that instructed healthcare providers to consider race and ethnicity when prioritizing scarce COVID-19 treatments, arguing that the policy was discriminatory and violated federal civil rights laws.
Although courts ultimately dismissed the case on standing grounds, Jacobson maintains that it illustrates the real-world dangers of allowing DEI ideology to dictate medical decisions. "This has a real world impact," Jacobson told Fox News Digital. "This is not just the crazy dance therapy department or the crazy gender ideology department or the sociology department where the most harm they can really do is to the minds of young people. Here we're talking about healthcare decisions are being made, access to healthcare because of the DEI infusion in medical schools is being rationed and affected by these ideologies. So this is life and death. This is serious stuff."
Trumps executive orders did not impose an outright ban on DEI programming in medical schools, but they did signal a clear shift toward enforcing race-neutral standards in federally funded institutions. A January 2025 order, "Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity," specifically highlighted the medical industry and higher education as sectors where race- and sex-based preferences could run afoul of federal civil rights law.
That order directed the Justice Department and the Education Department to provide guidance to institutions receiving federal funds on how to comply with the Supreme Courts 2023 decision restricting the use of race in college admissions. For medical schools that have long relied on DEI frameworks, this has created a powerful incentive to rebrand and obscure, rather than openly defend, their race-conscious policies.
Jacobson contends that many medical schools have responded by moderating their language while preserving the same underlying agenda. "I think it's less blatant. I think, again, they don't use the terminology of color in their programming like they used to, but it's the same programming," Jacobson said.
He also highlighted a structural difference between DEI in medical schools and in other academic disciplines, one that may have implications for reform efforts. There is one major difference when it comes to DEI in medical schools, according to Jacobson, who told Fox News Digital that in most academic fields DEI is driven by faculty activists, whereas in medical schools it is typically pushed by administrators.
"If you'd asked me four years ago, I would have said, wait five years, and DEI will have captured STEM, the sciences, and we're now four to five years and it's captured a lot of STEM, not as bad as the humanities and the social sciences, but there is a real problem in the sciences with DEI," Jacobson said. "Unlike the other aspects of the universities where it's professor-driven, in medicine, it's mostly administration-driven."
From his vantage point, the administrative nature of medical-school DEI may make it more susceptible to external pressure, since administrators are more directly accountable to boards, accreditors and government regulators than tenured faculty. Yet he cautioned that medical schools remain "extremely resistant to change," reflecting how deeply DEI has been woven into institutional culture and accreditation standards.
Jacobson argued that states have an important role to play in challenging DEI policies at public medical schools, especially as federal agencies and accrediting bodies increase their scrutiny of race-based requirements. He noted that the federal government itself has influenced the accrediting process, and that some DEI practices were effectively mandated by accreditors who are now facing pressure to align with the Supreme Courts insistence on equal protection and race-neutrality.
Ultimately, Jacobson insisted that legal and regulatory action, while necessary, will not be sufficient to dislodge DEI from medical education without a broader cultural transformation inside academia. "The federal and state governments can help, but we need a long-term effort over many years to change the culture on campuses to a culture of equality, not a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion," he told Fox News Digital.
For conservatives concerned about merit, equal treatment and public trust in medicine, the rebranding of DEI offices under innocuous titles like inclusive excellence or engagement is not a sign of reform but a warning that the same ideology is being repackaged rather than rejected. The question now is whether sustained legal pressure, state-level action and a renewed emphasis on colorblind equality can reverse the tide before DEIs influence over medical training and healthcare decisions becomes too entrenched to unwind.
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