Medical Schools Walk Back Discriminatory Scholarships After Do No Harm Complaints

Two medical schools have dropped eligibility criteria from scholarships that excluded applicants based on race after Do No Harm filed complaints against the schools with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR).

The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Baylor University College of Medicine each offered scholarships aimed at medical students the schools defined as “underrepresented” in the field of medicine. The University of Pittsburgh’s scholarship, previously called the Carey Andrew-Jaja, MD (CAJ) Visiting Elective Scholarship Program for 4th Year Students Under-Represented in Medicine, offered visiting fourth-year students $2,000 in funding.

Yet the school defined “eligible candidates” as those “from the following backgrounds/heritage: African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders, and Native Alaskans.”

Similarly, Baylor University College of Medicine’s Underrepresented in Medicine (URiM) Visiting Student Scholarship offered four $1,500 scholarships to accepted medical students to cover traveling, housing, and similar expenses. Baylor restricted the program to medical students who were “underrepresented in medicine,” which it defined as “Black or African-American, Hispanic/Latino, Native American (American Indian, Alaskan Native and Native Hawaiian), and Pacific Islander.”

Needless to say, distributing financial awards to students based on their race is not only immoral but illegal. Denying white and Asian students access to funding simply because they happened to be born in the wrong ethnic group is not in line with any medical school’s pedagogical mission and will only harm the medical field.

In response, Do No Harm Senior Fellow Mark J. Perry filed a federal civil rights complaint against the University of Pittsburgh in July 2022, alleging that the scholarship’s eligibility criteria were unlawful racial discrimination in violation of Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The OCR opened an investigation into the school the next month.

Perry filed a similar complaint against Baylor in July 2022 over its scholarship program, with the OCR opening an investigation in September 2022.

Since then, the medical schools have scrubbed the racial eligibility criteria from the programs’ descriptions.

The University of Pittsburgh’s scholarship is now titled “The Carey Andrew-Jaja, MD Visiting Elective Clerkship Program.” And, while applicants are still required to have an “interest” in diversity initiatives, the scholarship is no longer restricted to students of certain races. 

Similarly, Baylor’s scholarship has been renamed the “Health Equity Scholarship” and its description includes no mention of racial eligibility criteria. It should be noted, however, that the scholarship’s mission is still defined as “promot[ing] a diverse and engaged workforce.”

Nevertheless, Do No Harm applauds these changes. U.S. universities and medical schools should follow suit and end their illegal practices of prioritizing race in their admissions process and scholarship awards. 

“These outcomes at Pitt and Baylor are consistent with our past experience that once a medical school is investigated by OCR for illegal discrimination, there is no legal defense for a school to continue its race-based discrimination and it must open scholarships and programs to all students regardless of race,” Perry said. “Title VI is a very clear law, and the violations we’re challenging are very clear violations of a very clear law, so we have the law on our side. Medical schools have to learn that there are no ‘unless you have good intentions’ exceptions to Title VI, and discrimination based on race is still unlawful even if it advantages medical students of the ‘right’ races for the ‘right’ reasons. There is no good form of discrimination and Do No Harm is committed to challenging and stopping it in U.S. medical schools.”  

Medical schools should be on notice that Do No Harm remains steadfast and vigilant in our efforts to legally challenge any race-based discrimination that comes to our attention. If you are aware of any illegal race-based (or sex-based) discrimination in U.S. medical education, you can file an anonymous tip here.