The University of Iowa demoted employee Andrea Tinoco, who was featured in a video aired on Fox News on July 29, criticizing the university’s diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. The disciplinary action follows recommendations from the Iowa Board of Regents.

According to Steve Schmadeke, public relations manager at the UI, Tinoco has been demoted from assistant director of Leadership and Student Organization Development to project coordinator, with a 5 percent reduction in pay effective April 1. Her salary was over $62,500 and now will be $59,549.

UI employee Cory Lockwood —whose video condemning state DEI policies was released shortly after Tinoco’ — has not been demoted and his employment status remains unchanged, with a salary of $117,239.

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Both employees were placed on administrative leave in July 2025 and returned to work on March 9.

The video of Tinoco spread widely after an unidentified individual recorded it without her knowledge and sent it to Fox News.

Tinoco said in the video that university staff had been directed to rephrase or revise DEI-related language on university websites and in course materials, but said she continued much of the work with minimal changes to her curriculum and administrative duties.

The board called for DEI programs to follow state and federal law. The UI responded by renaming the central DEI office, reviewing DEI‑titled positions, updating faculty evaluations, changing the general education requirement, and making sure student programs are open to everyone while removing mandatory pronoun sharing.

“Some of those things have been removed from our website, but it doesn’t take away from it. It’s an academic course,” Tinoco said in the video. “So the content that I’m teaching, I’m still going to say DEI. I say it in my classes.”

In the video, Tinoco said the work still exists on campus despite the language changes.

“So it still exists,” Tinoco said. “DEI and student organizations and all of that. Like it is real, it still exists. We are still doing DEI work.”

The Daily Iowan was unable to receive comment from Tinoco or Lockwood at the time of publication.