SIU School of Medicine’s Race-Based Recruitment Plans

The Southern Illinois University School of Medicine has a simple strategy to recruit students and faculty: target certain racial groups.

As part of its “diversity and inclusion” initiatives, SIU unveiled several plans aimed at recruiting students, staff, and faculty deemed to be “underrepresented” in medicine. These plans date back over a decade, indicating SIU’s lengthy commitment to discriminatory recruiting practices.

As stated in its Minority Faculty Recruitment Plan: “The School will recruit, retain, and advance a student body, faculty, and staff reflective of the diversity of the region served by the medical school. A diverse faculty includes individuals from traditionally underrepresented in medicine groups (African-Americans, Latinos, Native- American Indians, Alaskans Natives, Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders) as well as women.”

The plan requires that all faculty hires have  “Job Descriptions written specifically to include wording that addresses the need for underrepresented minorities,” as well as “Search Committees (when appropriate) with at least one member from an underrepresented minority group.”

Additionally, minority faculty hires “will be assigned a Mentor who will orient them to the School.” 

The Minority Staff Recruitment Plan imposes similar requirements.

For what it’s worth, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) previously defined “underrepresented minority” as an individual from the “Black, Mexican-American, Native American (American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian), and mainland Puerto Rican populations.”

Meanwhile, SIU also maintains its Hispanic Student Recruitment Plan, which, predictably, is aimed at increasing enrollment of Hispanic students.

The plan states that all Hispanic student applicants will be “Screened by Admissions personnel and have their Underrepresented in Medicine (UIM) status noted”; “Interviewed by a veteran member of the Admissions Committee and (whenever possible) by a faculty member who is of Hispanic heritage”; and “Presented to the Admissions Committee by an individual who understands the Recruitment Plan and its UIM focus.”

This reckless, ideological pursuit of “diversity” and other DEI concepts is further reflected in SIU’s DEI programming.

For instance, SIU’s Health Equity Scholar Pathway matches participants with a “Health Equity mentor” as professional learning takes place in several identified program areas, including “literary research in anti-oppressive medical practices.” Upon completion of the program, the SIU School of Medicine will place the “Health Equity Scholar” distinction on residency applications via the ERAS system, the AAMC’s centralized online application service for residency programs. 

Just last month, SIU sponsored a lecture on “health equity” with the University of Illinois Springfield’s Institute for Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Social Justice.

SIU may seem like a small, sleepy medical school in rural Illinois, but it has fully embraced a toxic and regressive ideology that corrodes the pillars of merit and excellence holding up the foundation of medicine.