An organization of doctors, healthcare professionals, and policymakers attempting to protect health care from “radical, divisive, and discriminatory ideology” is questioning how East Tennessee State University (ETSU) will respond to the state’s new higher education transparency law that rolls back Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) requirements at publicly funded colleges, universities, and medical schools.
“ETSU is just continuing to double down on their DEI efforts,” Do No Harm’s Laura Morgan, MSN, RN, told The Tennessee Star in an interview, explaining that the school’s announced DEI program called “Moon Shot for Equity” is the “kind of program that House Bill 1376 and Senate Bill 817 is going to say you’ve got to get rid of because it’s pretty clear about not having courses or learning” related to DEI.
Morgan, who authored the report for Do No Harm that targets the “DEI Bureaucracy in Tennessee’s Medical Schools,” said Tennessee’s new law, called the Higher Education Freedom of Expression and Transparency Act, will pose a problem for ETSU’s “Moon Shot for Equity initiative,” which has seminar dates scheduled through December thus far:
It puts restrictions on concepts that affect the curriculum, and other learning, offerings, and, really importantly, it prohibits schools from requiring, either for admission to medical school or being hired as faculty, a formal diversity statement that says, hey, this is how I will contribute to all your DEI ideology and I promise to back it up.
“The medical schools have been using that as kind of a way to weed out applicants that aren’t going to go along with the whole DEI ideology,” Morgan explained, “but, then, to make it a required statement, as a condition of employment, that’s really problematic and this bill is going to prohibit that sort of thing.”
ETSU officials have already shown resistance to the provisions of the legislation, which now goes into effect July 1.
In March, William Block, M.D., dean of medicine at ETSU’s Quillen College of Medicine, sent out an internal email, obtained by The Tennessee Star, in which he defined the words “equity” as “the quality of being fair and impartial,” and “woke” as “aware of and actively attentive to important societal facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice).”
Block ridiculed an article highlighting how woke equity policies have infiltrated Tennessee medical schools, and claimed it is a “fact” that such DEI ideology has been “repeatedly proven to improve outcomes for our patients and make[s] us better doctors.”
Keith Johnson, Ph.D., vice president for equity and inclusion at ETSU, condemned Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in his May newsletter, claiming DeSantis “has been on a crusade to eliminate DEI initiatives from state colleges and universities across the state of Florida.”
“The state of Tennessee is also riding on that same anti-DEI band wagon with its deliberate anti LGBT+ and its Critical Race Theory bills,” Johnson continued, adding he “strongly believes” a “motivating factor for aggressive anti-DEI bills” is “the elimination of teaching Black history in our schools.”
Johnson pressed forward that “ETSU is fully committed to DEI”:
ETSU is deliberately and intentionally assessing it practices and systems that serve as road blocks to retention and graduation: specifically, targeting admissions, financial aid, advising and overall campus navigation, climate, and engagement. ETSU will also scrutinize college transitions, student support technology, change management, data reporting infrastructure and accountability and equity – mindedness. ETSU is fully committed to DEI and closing the equity gaps as a priority for the university. Please visit our Moonshot website to learn of all of the wonderful things that the university is doing to be more equitable and inclusive as the institution makes the Herculean effort to live out its values.
Do No Harm’s latest report examines information about diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives that influence the policies, curriculum, and activities at medical schools in Tennessee.
Read more: https://t.co/VeEgS9YMY5 pic.twitter.com/VysdLZhyYi
— Do No Harm (@donoharm) February 28, 2023
Do No Harm praised the Tennessee legislation as a “huge victory,” identifying the state as one that has “gone further than any other state in weeding out DEI at medical schools.”
“The bill itself makes an effort to say that you’ve got to publish your syllabus for each course that you have,” Morgan said. “And it’s got to be done within a specific timeframe. Because you can’t have a course that you call ‘how to be a good doctor,’ and then fill it with things that is actually implicit bias training or something about microaggressions or tells you to read how to be an anti-racist or something like that.”
The Tennessee Star reached out for comment to Johnson. No immediate response was received.
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Susan Berry, PhD is national education editor at The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected]
Photo “East Tennessee State University” by East Tennessee State University.
Dr Block let me qualify equity and equality, your definition was not complete. Equity guarantees outcome, one is given preference not on merit, rather some other subjective criteria such as skin color, religion or sexual preference. Equity is not fairness, in fact it is racist and excludes all others who not a member of the targeted group. Equality, on the other hand, guarantees fair participation meaning all have a fair opportunity regardless of gender, race, religion or orientation. The screaming Bernie Sanders was hollering about equity and quality. When questioned about the difference he was unable to correctly define either word..