University Walks Back Several ‘Discriminatory’ Programs Following Second Federal Investigation

The University of Kansas Medical Center (KUMC) at the University of Kansas School of Medicine (KUSM) has scrubbed its website containing programs with discriminatory admissions criteria, according to Do No Harm, a medical activist organization.

KUMC removed racially discriminatory language from its Urban Scholars Program for Students Underrepresented in Medicine earlier this year after Do No Harm reported the program to the Department of Education’s (DOE) Office of Civil Rights (OCR), according to Do No Harm. The school has now removed discriminatory language from multiple other programs, the Summer Diversity Research Scholarship for First- and Second-Year Medical Students and the KUMC Sub-Internship in Plastic Surgery Diversity Scholarship, following a letter sent to Do No Harm senior Fellow Mark Perry detailing another OCR investigation into the school, according to Do No Harm.

“To be considered for a scholarship through the KU Department of Plastic Surgery Scholarship Program, the student must be a member of a population that is underrepresented in Plastic Surgery; i.e. African American/Black, American Indian, Native Hawaiian, Alaska Native and/or Hispanic/Latino,” an archived version of the “Summer Diversity Scholarship for First- and Second-Year Medical Students” reads.

Following an investigation into UKMC being opened by the OCR, KUMC’s website detailing the Summer Diversity Research Scholarship has been scrubbed of the discriminatory language in the eligibility portion of the webpage, according to Do No Harm. “Students who are members of groups underrepresented in medicine are encouraged to apply,” the eligibility portion of the scholarship now reads.

The KUMC Sub-Internship in Plastic Surgery has been taken off the website, according to Do No Harm.

“When they change eligibility to ‘Students who are members of groups underrepresented in medicine are encouraged to apply’ it’s likely to ‘correct’ their illegal racial discrimination but still mostly select certain minority students. Before it was basically ‘heterosexual cisgender white Asian men need not apply,’ and now it’s something like ‘heterosexual cisgender white Asian men can now apply but we’ll still demonstrate an unstated preference for groups underrepresented students,’” Perry told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Multiple universities around the country have removed discriminatory language from their websites following investigations by the DOE’s OCR.

KUMC did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.