Sept. 23 (UPI) — The University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine discriminates against White and Asian applicants in favor of their Black and Hispanic counterparts, the Justice Department said amid the Trump administration’s efforts to eradicate diversity, equity and inclusion policies at institutions of higher learning.
The Justice Department has launched investigations into some of the nation’s leading medical and law schools to determine compliance with a 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision that restricted race-conscious admissions practices.
In its findings released Tuesday concerning UCSF Medical School, federal lawyers alleged that prompting applicants to identify their race in the first two stages of the application process resulted in Black and Hispanic applicants being invited to the third and final interview stage at higher rates than White and Asian applicants with better MCAT scores and undergraduate grade point averages.
The report states that this was the case for the 2023 through 2025 incoming classes. During this period, UCSF Medical School was 4.6 times more likely to admit Hispanic applicants and 12.6 times more likely to admit Black applicants compared to White applicants with the same MCAT score, GPA and socioeconomic characteristics.
“Unfortunately, at UCSF Medical School, MCAT scores and undergraduate GPAs have taken a backseat to race,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement.
“Aspiring doctors should be admitted based on their qualifications. The Supreme Court has spoken clearly — federally funded medical schools may not admit students based on misguided and illegal notions of diversity.”
UPI has asked UCSF Medical School for comment.
Trump, who ran on removing left-leaning ideology from public and private spaces, has been targeting universities, many of which are some of the most celebrated in the nation, over alleged DEI hiring and admissions policies.
On Jan. 21, 2025, Trump’s second day back in office, the president signed an executive order directing the attorney general to issue guidance to federally funded educational institutions on how to comply with the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling concerning race-conscious admissions practices at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina.
On March 30, the Justice Department informed UCSF Medical School of its investigation, requesting admissions data and other documents related to its admissions policies and practices.
The Justice Department has announced similar findings concerning other schools, including the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, Yale University’s medical school, University of California, Berkeley School of Law and several others.
It is calling on UCSF Medical School to contact it by Oct. 2 to enter discussions on implementing a voluntary resolution agreement to ensure its compliance with the Supreme Court ruling.
Source: U.S. News
You must be logged in to post a comment.