Texas’ second audit of public colleges’ compliance with the state’s diversity, equity and inclusion ban found no violations at the University of Texas System and 15 community colleges, even as conservative activists continue to accuse some of keeping DEI-related work alive under new names.
The State Auditor’s Office report cleared UT System schools and the community colleges on one narrow question: whether they spent state money in violation of Senate Bill 17, the 2023 Texas law that forced public colleges to close DEI offices, end required DEI trainings and stop using diversity statements in hiring.
The report does not detail about what auditors found at each campus, what issues they raised privately with university leaders or how schools draw the line between banned DEI work and classroom teaching the law still protects.
Randa Safady, UT System’s vice chancellor for external relations, said the private communications mentioned in the report were not necessarily findings. She said such language often means auditors asked about “process or clarification, not a substantive issue.”
UT institutions changed staffing, programs, training and spending when the DEI ban took effect, Safady said. The system also updated its policies and certified to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board that all institutions were in compliance, she added.
The audit, first reported by KXAN on Thursday, covered all 14 UT System institutions and the following 15 community colleges:
- Alvin College
- Amarillo College
- Austin Community College District
- Brazosport College
- Clarendon College
- College of the Mainland
- Frank Phillips College
- Galveston College
- Houston City College
- Lee College
- Lone Star College System
- San Jacinto College District
- South Plains College
- Victoria College
- Wharton County Junior College
Officials at Austin Community College District, one of the larger systems reviewed with nearly 44,000 students enrolled last fall, said it would continue to follow the law.
“ACC will continue to use effective, student-focused practices to help all students access resources and supports they need to achieve their academic and workforce goals,” said Sydney Pruitt, senior media relations coordinator.
Auditors interviewed college employees and reviewed state-funded spending from Sept. 1, 2024, to Aug. 31, 2025. They looked at hiring records, job postings and descriptions, promotion and merit-pay records, training, programs, websites and documents related to former DEI offices.
They reviewed samples of such records. The report cautions that the audit’s results should not be used to draw conclusions about every record at each school.
At UT-Austin, for example, auditors reviewed 25 employees, 25 new hires and 25 promotions or merit increases out of thousands of records in those categories.
The State Auditor’s Office has found problems before. Its first audit of the ban, released in February 2025, flagged Texas A&M University-Central Texas for contracting with a vendor to perform DEI office duties and McLennan Community College for requiring a new employee to take DEI training.
Republican leaders spent much of last year accusing universities of failing to fully comply with the DEI ban. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick threatened budget cuts to state campuses if universities did not “kick DEI out of their schools.” GOP senators later warned they could block funding increases after claiming they had found “numerous” violations, though they did not publicly identify them.
In the end, lawmakers created a faster way to investigate complaints by creating a new ombudsman office to act on written complaints from students, faculty and staff who allege their school violated the DEI ban. The office must notify a school’s governing board within five days of a qualifying complaint and can recommend lawmakers block the school from spending state money until the auditor confirms a violation is addressed.
As of mid-March, none of Texas’ eight public university systems had records showing they had received formal complaint notices from the ombudsman’s office, according to public records responses obtained by The Texas Tribune.
Outside groups are keeping up the pressure too.
Accuracy in Media, a conservative group that uses undercover videos, recently published recordings of UT-Austin and UT-Arlington employees.
In the UT-Austin video, an employee in the department of women’s gender and sexuality studies said the DEI ban created more work for staff but did not change academic work. In the UT-Arlington video, an academic recruiter in the School of Social work said faculty still cover topics related to race and gender but avoid certain language.
The Tribune reached out to Accuracy in Media for comment on the audit.
The organization’s president, Adam Guillette, issued a statement saying that “multiple administrators at more than a half-dozen Texas universities have bragged about continuing their DEI programs, often in defiance of state law.”
“The auditor’s office needs to immediately address our findings and issue an explanation,” Guillette said.
UT-Austin officials did not immediately respond to questions Friday while those at UT-Arlington said leaders investigated after the video circulated online.
“The statements reflected in the video do not represent university policy or practice. As a result, the employee referenced in the video is no longer employed by the university,” said Jeff Kaplan, UT-Arlington’s director of media relations. He declined to comment further.
Safady, at the UT System, later added, “Any allegation or complaint that suggests an institution is not following the law is investigated to ensure full compliance with law.”
Academic course instruction and scholarly research are exempt from the DEI ban.
