IUSM Makes The Woke Bureaucracy Even Bigger

Medical school deans are supposed to focus on teaching students to be the best physicians. The Indiana University School of Medicine has a different vision. IUSM just named its first “first executive associate dean for diversity, equity, inclusion and justice,” who will also serve as “Chief Diversity Officer.” The whole point of this job is to embed woke ideology even deeper at IUSM.

The new dean is Chemen M. Neal, who has already spent significant time promoting divisive ideas since her hiring in 2011. Yet now she’ll take this work to an unprecedented level. IUSM has announced that she will “lead an existing team of faculty and staff and have direct responsibility for a variety of areas, including”:

• Developing and guiding implementation of DEIJ strategic plans
• Defining and monitoring DEIJ key performance indicators
• Performing climate assessments
• Organizing affinity group, learner development and support programs
• Engaging and supporting schoolwide councils that advise DEIJ initiatives
• Ensuring impactful co-curricular training and development programs are in place
• Collaborating with diversity leadership across the university, campus and health systems
• Monitoring implementation of department and dean’s office unit diversity plans
• Developing programs to enhance diversity recruitment and retention
• Represent IU School of Medicine in diversity affairs at national organizations and in the community

Note the complete lack of focus on medical education. There’s also significant overlap among these tasks, which points to the bureaucratic nature of the work. IUSM is growing a massive bureaucracy that will likely influence everything the medical school does.

What’s more, Neal has made clear that her goals include “establishing metrics to help school leadership gain a greater understanding of key areas like retention and belonging, as well as a focus on the diversification of faculty.” Translation: She wants to hire faculty based on skin color, instead of medical and teaching expertise. Medical students – and the patients they will treat – deserve better.

IUSM is already one of the most woke medical schools in America. We’ve documented how faculty must prove their woke credentials in order to get tenure or promoted. Now, with this new executive associate dean, IUSM is doubling down on the politicized transformation of medical education. Indiana policymakers may want to look into what IUSM is doing – and ask its leadership why such corruption of mission is justified.