Commentary

We Found More Discriminatory Scholarships at the University of Kansas School of Medicine

  • By Do No Harm Staff
  • April 14, 2023
  • University of Kansas School of Medicine

The University of Kansas School of Medicine at the KU Medical Center (KUMC) continues to violate civil rights laws with two more discriminatory scholarships.

We previously reported about the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights’ investigation of KUSM for its Urban Scholars Program for Students Underrepresented in Medicine. In response the school quietly changed the eligibility requirements by removing the race/ethnicity criteria that originally created the violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

But KUMC has more scrubbing to do.

The KUMC Department of Plastic, Burn, and Wound Surgery offers the Summer Diversity Research Scholarship for First and Second Year Medical Students. According to the department’s informational document, “To be considered for a scholarship through the KU Department of Plastic Surgery Scholarship Program, the student must be a member of a population that is underrepresented in Plastic Surgery; i.e. African American/Black, American Indian, Native Hawaiian, Alaska Native and/or Hispanic/Latino.”

Figure 1. KUMC Dept. of Plastic, Burn, and Wound Surgery’s “Summer Diversity Research Scholarship for First and Second Year Medical Students.”

The application for this scholarship requires applicants to list their “Racial Identification/Ethnicity:”

Figure 2. Application for the Summer Diversity Research Scholarship for First and Second Year Medical Students at KUMC.

Under these requirements, medical students who are white, Asian, Pacific Islander, or Middle Eastern/North African are illegally excluded from this scholarship on the basis of their race, color, or national origin.

The school also offers the Department of Plastic Surgery Sub-Internship in Plastic Surgery Diversity Scholarship:

Figure 3. Department of Plastic, Burn, and Wound Surgery “Educational Resources for Medical Students” at KUMC.

The informational document is available for download from this page, which lists the same racially discriminatory eligibility criteria:

Figure 4. Eligibility criteria for the Sub-Internship in Plastic Surgery Diversity Scholarship at KUMC.

The application for this scholarship also collects the student’s “Racial Identification/Ethnicity:”

Figure 5. Application for the Diversity Sub-Internship in Plastic Surgery Scholarship at KUMC.

Both scholarships at KUMC cover the awardee’s travel costs and provide stipends of $1,500 and $500, respectively.

Do No Harm senior fellow Mark Perry filed a federal civil rights complaint against KUMC for these two scholarships. Perry requested the Kansas City OCR investigate KUMC for violations of Title VI, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race/ethnicity.