Midwest
University of Wisconsin-Madison's ex-diversity officer scrutinized over spending, judgment amid DEI crackdown
The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s former chief diversity officer displayed a “significant lapse” in judgment and fiscal responsibility, according to a report, as state and federal lawmakers seek to root out diversity, equity and inclusion programs in education.
Lavar Charleston was removed from his role as chief diversity officer in January, although he remains as a faculty member, according to local outlet FOX 6.
An internal report revealed that Charleston gave most of his employees raises from 10% to 23% without justification, as state lawmakers were attempting to crack down on DEI initiatives within the Universities of Wisconsin system, FOX 6 reported.
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Lavar Charleston was removed from his role as chief diversity officer in January, although he remains as a faculty member. (Getty Images)
Records also show that Charleston spent $18,000 on massage therapy for students and $21,000 on a conference in the resort city of Lake Geneva, according to the outlet.
In December, Charleston said a former provost directed him to spend a $6 million surplus.
Charleston’s per-employee spending was the highest on campus, according to the internal report.
“In the course of routine financial management practices, and while collecting information in response to the Legislative Audit Bureau’s requests related to DEI expenditures, UW–Madison discovered a troubling set of expenditures in the division managed by Vice Chancellor for Inclusive Excellence LaVar Charleston,” a spokesperson for the University of Wisconsin-Madison said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
NEARLY HALF OF DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION STAFF WILL BE ELIMINATED IMMINENTLY
Lavar Charleston reportedly spent $18,000 on massage therapy for students and $21,000 on a conference in the resort city of Lake Geneva. (Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
This included “highly atypical and excessive spending across multiple dimensions – from bonuses and compensation adjustments to travel, supplies and furnishings,” the statement said.
“Once discovered, additional financial and HR controls were put in place in the division and across administrative units while leadership continued internal review,” the spokesperson continued. “The review confirmed poor financial judgment and lack of accountability. As a result, on Jan. 22, Dr. Charleston was removed from his role. An external examination of management controls is set to begin soon.”
This comes as President Donald Trump seeks to end DEI programs across the country, including in higher education.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is among roughly 50 universities being investigated by the Department of Education over accusations of racial discrimination by allegedly excluding certain races from specific programs.
Lavar Charleston’s per-employee spending was the highest on campus, according to the internal report seen by FOX 6. (Getty Images)
Institutions were warned that they could lose federal money over race-based preferences in admissions, scholarships, programs or other activities. The department’s investigation focuses on universities’ partnerships with the PhD Project, a nonprofit organization that encourages Black, Hispanic and Native American professionals to earn business doctorate degrees.
The Trump administration argues that DEI programs exclude White and Asian American students in violation of Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color and national origin in programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance.
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Article Summary
- The U.S. Department of Justice is suing Illinois for access to its complete, unredacted voter registration database.
- Documents filed in federal court suggest the agency wants the information so it can purge the names of suspected noncitizens using a federal database that many have criticized for being inaccurate.
- Similar suits have been filed in 29 other states and Washington, D.C. Judges in six states have granted motions to dismiss the suits. No judge has yet ruled in favor of DOJ’s request.
This summary was written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.
SPRINGFIELD — The Trump administration’s lawsuits seeking access to sensitive voter registration data in Illinois and dozens of other states is one part of a broader effort to purge state voter rolls of suspected noncitizens, according to documents filed recently in federal court in Springfield.
Those documents were filed Thursday, April 30, by attorneys representing the Illinois AFL-CIO and other groups that have intervened in the case seeking to prevent the Department of Justice from obtaining the information. They say it proves the agency’s stated reasons for seeking the data — to determine whether Illinois is complying with voter list maintenance requirements — is only a pretext and the agency’s suit against the state should be dismissed.
Read the filing
Several former DOJ attorneys who have worked in the Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division filed an amicus brief in the case in March, arguing the agency has no statutory authority to seek the information to conduct its own list maintenance program or to identify noncitizens.
The new documents filed Thursday include internal DOJ emails that the attorneys say were made available “in response to a public records request lawsuit.”
One of those was a June 16, 2025, email from Michael Gates, who was then a deputy assistant attorney general in DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, to his superior, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who oversees that division. In that email, Gates states that the division is seeking access to the Department of Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, database.
“This will be helpful to us because it will allow us to compare this SAVE database against states’ voter rolls, which we will get directly from states under the (National Voter Registration Act),” Gates wrote.
The next month, on July 28, DOJ sent its first letter to the Illinois State Board of Elections seeking access to Illinois’ complete, unredacted statewide voter registration list, indicating that it was part of DOJ’s efforts to enforce voter list maintenance provisions of NVRA. The letter was signed by Gates. It also bore the name of Maureen Riordan, acting chief of the Voting Section within the Civil Rights Division.
Gates has since left the Justice Department. He is currently a Republican candidate for California attorney general in that state’s upcoming June 2 primary.
SAVE database
The SAVE database was originally set up to help states verify the citizenship and immigration status of people applying for public benefits such as Medicaid and SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Some states also use it to verify people’s eligibility to vote.
But the program has also been the target of criticism because of its tendency to misidentify people as noncitizens due to its use of incomplete or inaccurate data.
On April 21, the watchdog groups Common Cause and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, filed a lawsuit against DOJ in federal court in Washington, D.C., alleging the agency wants to use state voter registration lists and the SAVE database to conduct what they call “a sprawling new voter surveillance and purging apparatus that endangers millions of Americans’ fundamental voting and privacy rights.”
A second document filed last week in the Illinois case is a Nov. 18, 2025, email from the acting chief of the Civil Rights Division’s Voting Section, Eric Neff, that appears to suggest how the agency should conceal its intentions when asked why it is seeking states’ voter registration databases.
“I believe our reply should always be: ‘We will use the data in a manner consistent with Federal law’ and say nothing more,” Neff wrote to fellow DOJ lawyers Jesus Osete and Matt Zandi. He also said of the Help America Vote Act, the Civil Rights Act and NVRA, “none of them require (us) to give the states information about what we are going to do with the data. No judge will have authority to limit us beyond a promise of Federal law compliance.”
Illinois lawsuit
Illinois has refused to hand over an unredacted voter registration list. Instead, it has provided DOJ with electronic copies of partially redacted files that do not include sensitive information such as dates of birth, driver’s license numbers or partial Social Security numbers.
In December, DOJ filed suit in the Central District of Illinois seeking access to the unredacted files. It also filed similar suits in 29 other states and Washington, D.C.
The Illinois AFL-CIO, Common Cause several and other groups have intervened as codefendants in the case.
Attorneys for the state and the intervening parties have filed motions to dismiss the DOJ lawsuit. Judge Colleen Lawless has not yet ruled on the motion. Similar suits have already been dismissed in six other states. No court has yet ruled in favor of DOJ’s request for access to the unredacted voter files.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
A man is dead following a May 4 collision on westbound Interstate 64 west of Corydon, Indiana, according to a news release from the Indiana State Police.
ISP Sgt. Carey Huls said the two-vehicle crash occurred around 5:45 a.m. when Zachary Burdin, 31, was traveling westbound on I-64, and his vehicle collided with the back of a truck with a trailer full of paving equipment.
Burdin was pronounced dead at the scene by the Harrison County Coroner. There were no other injuries reported. Officials do not attribute the crash to any weather conditions.
Huls said the crash was cleared from the highway by about 9 a.m., and there are no current issues.
DES MOINES, Iowa (KCRG) – Iowa gas prices have topped $4 per gallon for the first time since 2022, averaging $4.11 a gallon.
According to GasBuddy, prices jumped 15 cents from Sunday night to Monday, up from $3.84 on Wednesday. Prices have risen 61 cents in the past month.
Iowa gas prices are $1.18 higher than a year ago. The highest recorded average in Iowa was $4.77 per gallon in June 2022.
Nationally, Georgia has the lowest average gas price at $3.85 per gallon, while California has the highest at $6.08.
Copyright 2026 KCRG. All rights reserved.
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