by Alexa Schwerha
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.
– – –
Alexa Schwerha is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “Saint Louis University” by Saint Louis University.
This is what many miss in the lefts’ DEI “flavor of the month”. What the school is doing is racist. What they are shooting for is equity or guaranteed outcomes, not equality to participate where focus is on meritocracy. Equity is racist, it is divisive and it both prioritizes and selects those who may not be the best qualified. Many fellow faculty concur, the problem rests squarely on the shoulders or politicos like Bernie, Elizabeth Warren, Hillary and the like. They promote this position not based on belief, rather to pander for votes. Gender, race, religion needs to omitted from both college entrance and financial assistance applications. None are relevant to academic success.