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. (RELATED: Med School Walks Back Alleged Race-Based Programs After Federal Investigation)
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.
“All visiting students who wish to study in the psychiatry department at SLU should have the opportunity to apply, regardless of race or ethnicity,” Laura Morgan, Do No Harm program manager, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “SLU and other schools of medicine must award these types of opportunities based on merit, not according to their DEI metrics or the demands of woke activists.”
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.”
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.
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