Medical College of Wisconsin Has More Clean-Up on Aisle DEI

The Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) appears to be in clean-up mode.

Within the last month or so, MCW has scrubbed, renamed, or rebranded much of the resources and pages on its website dedicated to DEI. For instance, its web page previously dedicated to the Office of Diversity and Inclusion now redirects to the MCW homepage.

The page previously contained links to MCW’s DEI activities, as well as statements justifying the DEI office’s existence.

“There are many dimensions of difference, but diversity scholars suggest key dimensions of human and social difference, called the ‘Big 8’, present persisting challenges and opportunities to organizations,” one statement read. “The dimensions found among MCW’s people and stakeholders include race/ethnicity, gender/gender identity, sexual orientation, geographic origin/nationality, mental/physical (dis)ability status, religion, age, and role and functional/military background.”

Moreover, its page advertising the Visiting Student Health Equity Program – Clinical Rotation Award now redirects to the MCW homepage.

Among the other pages deleted is the President’s Inclusive Excellence Award, and the MCW Cancer Center’s DEI page.

However, MCW’s rebrand appears to be incomplete; several pages dedicated to DEI concepts remain. 

For instance, MCW’s “Institute for Health and Equity” page is still up, but the underlying institution appears to have been renamed the Institute for Health & Humanity. An archived webpage from October 2024 still bears the name “Health and Equity.”

Additionally, a page advertising a 2022 DEI info session remains up.

Given MCW’s history of engaging in discriminatory behavior, it’s a welcome sign that it has decided to remove its divisive, activist content – so long as it is a sincere shift in priorities. 

In 2022, Do No Harm filed a complaint with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) against MCW for its 2022 Visiting Underrepresented in Medicine (URiM) Student Elective Program.

Acceptance into the program required applicants to “be a member of a group that is recognized as racially/ethnically URiM by MCW: Mexican American, Puerto Rican, Black/African American, Native American, and Hmong/Hmong American.” This requirement is a violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on race or ethnicity.

Following our complaint, MCW ended up removing specific race/ethnicity eligibility criteria from the program description.

In recent months, many medical schools have rebranded their DEI initiatives following President Trump’s executive orders; but ultimately, these efforts should be genuine attempts to end divisive and exclusionary practices, rather than attempts to merely remove incendiary language.

Schools must ditch this discriminatory, regressive ideology entirely.