Commentary

The University of Utah Medical School’s Woke Approach: Fake It Till You Make It

  • By Do No Harm Staff
  • January 12, 2023
  • University of Utah School of Medicine

We just discovered that America’s main medical school accreditation organization is forcing medical schools to adopt racial quotas. We unearthed this fact after the University of Utah School of Medicine responded to our FOIA request. Yet what’s also interesting is Utah’s response to race-based demands made by the Liaison Committee for Medical Education.

To put it bluntly, Utah’s premier medical school is doing bureaucratic busywork to make itself seem more woke.

Figure 1. UUSOM “pre-medical conference” by The Latino Medical Student Association.

We found that the LCME criticized the Utah School of Medicine for not having enough minorities or women in its faculty and administrative staff, as well as its student body. The LCME also required the school to provide an update on the remedial actions it subsequently took to right this supposed wrong. Here is Utah’s response:

  • It created an “Indigenous STEM Youth Outreach Program.”
  • It established a “Día de los Muertos/Day of the Dead Pre-Health Conference,” with the purpose of preparing “Underrepresented/Underserved pre-med students interested in a career in medicine or health on their journey.”
  • It created a “Medical Admissions Preparatory Program (MAPP),” an 8-week summer program designed to assist premedical students from underrepresented backgrounds to strengthen their medical school application.
  • It offered scholarship funding to support underrepresented populations.
Figure 2. UUSOM Medical Admissions Preparatory Program (MAPP).

These programs should be seen for what they are: An attempt by administrators to prove their woke street cred by pushing around paperwork. What’s more, they represent a waste of Utahn’s taxpayer money, and a weakening emphasis on medical education – at a medical school.

Figure 3. Excerpt from LCME follow-up letter dated June 30, 2022.

Bizarrely, the LCME seems okay with these activities. Its response to Utah states that the school addressed its concerns in several areas. Now Utah, taxpayers, policymakers, and patients should be the ones who are concerned. Why is the University of Utah School of Medicine wasting its time on woke bureaucracy?

Have you seen the woke bureaucracy at your medical school? Please let us know – securely and anonymously.