Wisconsin med school fully embrace DEI

(Do No Harm) – The University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health (UWMSMPH) scores in the green on the Diversity, Inclusion, Culture, and Equity (DICE) Inventory, as it just confirmed to Do No Harm.

Here’s the background. In November 2022, the Association of American Medical Colleges released a report showing that the vast majority of medical schools have embraced identity politics, despite their divisive and even discriminatory nature. The report was based on surveys of specific medical schools, which the AAMC didn’t name.

For the sake of transparency and accountability, Do No Harm submitted freedom of information requests to public medical schools nationwide, including UWMSMPH. We asked for a copy of its survey response, so that Wisconsin taxpayers and policymakers could learn the truth about this institution.

Here’s what the UWMSMPH has self-reported:

• It has adopted racially discriminatory admissions practices under the guise of “affirmative action.” This means it’s potentially lowering standards in the name of diversity, thereby threatening patient health. The school’s Admissions Process page states that applications are reviewed with its mission of advancing health equity in mind. And, UWMSMPH scrubbed its website of discriminatory eligibility language after an investigation was opened into the Visiting Pediatrics Rotation Scholarship for Students Underrepresented in Medicine by the Office for Civil Rights.

• It has a “dedicated office, staff, or resources” dedicated to DEI. This means there’s a permanent woke bureaucracy pushing ideology on faculty and students. The Office of Diversity & Equity Transformation has six dedicated staff members to uphold its goal “to be a national leader among academic medical centers in anti-racism” and DEI. “The Associate Dean for Diversity & Equity Transformation is also the VP of Diversity and Chief Diversity Officer for UW Health,” the school reported to the AAMC, “creating an integrated office within the academic medical center.” The school also says it is “extremely mindful of dismantling racism and bigotry that has been embedded in images, branding, and communication,” reviewing these elements “through an equity lens.”

• It lobbies for woke policies at the federal, state, and/or local levels.This means it’s wading into toxic public debates instead of fully focusing on educating future physicians.  UWMSMPH was eager to inform the AAMC of its leadership’s involvement in multiple state legislative advocacy initiatives, including opposing legislation related to access to sports for “gender transitioning athletes in K-12” and a bill “prohibiting providers from offering gender transitioning procedures” to minors.
• At the time it submitted the DICE Inventory to the AAMC, UWMSMPH’s tenure and promotion policies did not specifically address DEI topics. However, the school commented that it was finalizing revisions to the guidelines for the Clinical Health Sciences track faculty “to specifically incorporate DEI work as part of the promotion considerations.” This is a litmus test that will require faculty to toe the party line instead of teaching medicine at the highest level.
• Its administrators are active within local, regional, and national forums to promote equity, diversity, and inclusion. This means it’s wasting resources that would be better spent on real medical education. “Our faculty and staff are seen as experts in this area,” the SMPH told the AAMC, “and [are] regularly called upon to lend their expertise and voice to advancing health equity.”

All told, UWMSMPH has instituted 88.6% of the divisive and discriminatory woke policies listed by the AAMC. And you can bet it is feeling pressure from activists and outside groups to go even further down the radical rabbit hole – doing even more damage to faculty, medical students, and ultimately, the millions of patients they’ll see.

Wisconsin taxpayers help fund the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health. They, and the policymakers who represent them, should ask why they’re giving so much money to an institution that’s putting divisive and discriminatory ideology at the heart of medical education.