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Diving overview:
- Republican lawmakers on the House Education and Labor Committee took aim at the university's diversity, equity and inclusion practices during a two-hour hearing Thursday.
- Republicans have focused much of their attention on diversity in medical education, anti-Semitism, and the budgeting and staffing of university DEI offices.
- The hearing could provide insight into Republicans' legislative priorities. Republicans control committees that oversee federal higher education plans and influence legislation affecting colleges and universities.
Dive Insights:
Medical education was a popular topic among Republicans at the hearing. Perhaps it is due in part to the testimony. Stanley Goldfarb, former associate dean of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
Goldfarb — who Founded Do No Harm, an organization seeking to roll back DEI initiatives in medical education. — He was criticized for his views. In one comment Medical news publication STAT They accused him of trying to spread a “racist narrative.”
“Future doctors are learning about divisive politics at the expense of life-saving care.” that said in his opening speech. “They are taught to discriminate against race and not treat patients equally.”
goldfab Spending classroom time on issues of policing, climate change and intersectionality deprives future doctors of education in the fundamentals of medicine and treatment, they argued.
He argued that medical schools are endangering patients by requiring faculty to sign a “DEI Loyalty Pledge,” advocating for segregated medicine and lowering admissions standards for minority applicants.
“There is an ideology that if I were Native American, I would choose a doctor who would score 30 to 40 points lower on the MCAT. [Medical College Admission Test] “But who is Native American but an Asian doctor who performed exceptionally well on the MCAT?” Representative Glenn Grothman, Republican from Wisconsin. “You’d have to be absolutely crazy to think that’s why we should run our health care system.”
Association of American Medical Colleges and other educational institutions Instead, doctors of the future should be aware of public health issues that affect their patients and be able to address different health outcomes for different groups, he said.
Research shows that sharing a racial identity with a physician Leads to better communication. In one study proliferation of black doctors Improvements in the health care system are associated with increased life expectancy for black health care patients.
Republicans on the committee also focused on funding and staffing DEI initiatives at public universities. Rep. Burgess Owens, Chairman of the Higher Education and Workforce Subcommittee;His opening remarks called for multi-million dollar DEI budgets for several public universities.
“And what are the results?” he asked. “More hate, more anger, more racism.”
Rep. Bob Good, Republican Congressman from VirginiaDetonated his own state's public flagship for spending on diversity, equity and inclusion.
“DEI jobs on college campuses aren’t low-paying jobs, right? In fact, the vice president of DEI and community partnerships at our local University of Virginia makes $340,000.” good said. “It’s twice the average of university professors. Is there any way you can justify that?”
A University of Virginia spokesperson said the commitment to DEI is intended to help students learn from diverse people and perspectives.
“To achieve this, we welcome students, faculty, and staff who reflect the rich diversity of the commonwealth we serve and focus on teaching students to bridge differences in ideology, life experiences, and other perspectives. There are diverse perspectives in the classroom and programming around Grounds,” a spokesperson said in an email.
Several members of the committee, including Democrats, took time to talk about anti-Semitism, with several claiming that DEI offices and initiatives encourage anti-Semitism on college campuses.
“If DEI is the appropriate place to address anti-Semitism, then those DEI programs have failed Jewish students,” he said. Rep. Kathy Manning, a Democratic congresswoman from North Carolina.
Representative Elise Stefanik, a Republican from New York, We took that feeling one step further.
“The DEI office on this college campus is inherently anti-Semitic,” she said.
Since the previous committee hearing: Stefanik It was influential in pressuring the presidents of three universities to resign over their handling of allegations of anti-Semitism on campus. Two of them are Claudine Gay of Harvard University; and Dr. Elizabeth Magill of the University of Pennsylvania. He eventually resigned after the hearing.
Democrats on the committee were generally more supportive of DEI efforts. Many have suggested that diversity on college campuses leads to a better learning environment. If any agency takes DEI in a negative or unreasonable direction, they should address it individually rather than scrapping the DEI office altogether, they said.
“We have to be careful about talking about DEI as if it is a monolithic construct.” James Murphy, director of careers and higher education policy at think tank Education Reform Now, testified Thursday. “Not really.”