Medical School Under Federal Investigation Over Its Allegedly Racist Scholarship Program
Alexa Schwerha on March 14, 2023
The U.S. Department of Education (DOE) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) launched a federal investigation March 6 into St. Louis University (SLU) after a complaint was filed accusing the school of offering a racially discriminatory scholarship, medical watchdog group Do No Harm reported.
The complaint, filed by Do No Harm senior fellow Mark Perry in September, accused SLU School of Medicine’s Scholarship Program for Visiting Medical Students Underrepresented in Medicine violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits race-based discrimination, because it is only accessible to students that identify as a specific race, the OCR letter reads. The office “will investigate whether the University discriminates against students based on race, color, or national origin in connection” with the program.
The scholarship program is offered through the school’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences, according to its website. Eligible students must “identify as a member of a group underrepresented in medicine” per Association of American Medical Colleges standards, which include African American, Black, Hispanic/Latino, Native American, Pacific Islander and mainland Puerto Rican students.
The program provides eligible fourth-year medical students with up to $1,500 paid upon completion of the program to cover fees, lodging and transportation costs, according to its description. Students will partake in a 4-week psychiatry clinical elective, receive mentorship and introduce students to the Psychiatry Resident Program.
Medical education must not be undermined in favor of medical wokeness. https://t.co/AUkWMTFEz6
— Do No Harm (@donoharm) February 5, 2023
“The University seeks excellence in the fulfillment of its corporate purposes of teaching, research, health care and service to the community,” the program’s mission reads. “It is dedicated to leadership in the continuing quest for understanding of God’s creation and for the discovery, dissemination and integration of the values, knowledge and skills required to transform society in the spirit of the Gospels.”
The OCR will act as a “neutral fact-finder” to collect evidence from Perry, USL and “other sources” during its investigation, its letter reads. The investigation announcement “in no way implies that OCR has made a determination on the merits of the complaint.”
Do No Harm, SLU, the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences and the OCR did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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