Commentary

Rutgers University Shows Support for Radical Activist Organizations – And Seeks Med School Applicants Dedicated to Social Justice

  • By Do No Harm Staff
  • January 2, 2024
  • Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Rutgers University Robert Wood Johnson Medical School

Rutgers University and its schools of medicine have long been dedicated to pushing politicized ideologies in its medical education programs and application policies, and the M.D. program selection process seeks to determine which of its applicants will be similarly committed to the social justice agenda. But most concerning is that the university’s activism has included radical and discriminatory causes.

The Rutgers New Jersey Medical School (NJMS) in Newark and the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (RWJMS) in Piscataway both have active DEI offices with many of the typical “resources” to promote its social justice positions. RWJMS even says that its “racial and ethnic diversity and equity” efforts for faculty and student numbers specifically target “Blacks and Hispanics.”

Figure 1. From the Rutgers RWJ Medical School Office of Inclusion & Diversity.

This perspective is reflected in the RWJMS and NJMS secondary essay questions for applicants to the M.D. degree program. Since the 2018-2019 application cycle, the school has been asking for information to identify students according to identity groups and activist causes:

  • 2018-2019: How do you identify racially? Ethnically? Culturally?
  • 2020-2022: We are committed to an environment which fosters collaboration, cohesiveness, equity and social justice. With this in mind, how will you contribute to the NJMS community?
  • 2023-2024: We are committed to supporting our NJMS community by enhancing collaboration between students, staff, and faculty, with a dedicated focus on humanism, health equity and social justice. How do you envision yourself contributing to the NJMS community?

As we reported in October, “humanism” is a progressive viewpoint that “advocates the extension of participatory democracy and the expansion of the open society, standing for human rights and social justice.” Of course, while this sounds like a worthwhile approach, what it really means is discrimination based on group characteristics and has led to the revolting surge in antisemitism that is damaging our nation.

It’s no wonder that the medical schools at Rutgers have evolved to adopt these philosophies. In June 2020, the Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences (RBHS) Faculty Affairs office took an additional step in fostering radical activism with a post by the Assistant Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Inclusion, and Development. There were no words associated with this post – titled “white coats for black lives”–which featured a picture of students wearing white lab coats staging a “die-in.”

Figure 2. RBHS Faculty Affairs blog post from June 5, 2020.

During the winter of 2021, RWJMS continued its support of White Coats for Black Lives (WC4BL) with a 48-page publication describing “A Quest for Anti-Racism.”

Figure 3. RWJMS publication from Winter 2021.

The piece features multiple photographs of medical students kneeling with fists in the air and holding signs promoting Black Lives Matter. It also confirms RWJMS’s policy on student selection: “Rather than only prioritizing on standardized test scores,” the article states, “the medical school values a candidate’s commitment to service, experience working with underserved populations, and understanding of social determinants of health.”

Figure 4. From the RWJMS publication “White Coats for Black Lives: A Quest for Anti-Racism” (Winter 2021).

Do No Harm has publicized how WC4BL (an offshoot of Black Lives Matter) has supported anti-Semitic activity at other medical schools, such as the University of Minnesota, the University of Tennessee, and the University of Utah. And, as the faculty at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA have learned, the anti-racism dogma only serves to exacerbate discrimination and division.

State after state across America are waking up to the destructiveness of DEI in institutions of higher education, implementing legislation to remove those practices from their universities. Rutgers University must also take an objective look at its processes and practices, and resolve to create knowledgeable clinicians instead of social justice warriors.