{"id":4540,"date":"2025-03-20T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-20T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/?p=4540"},"modified":"2025-03-20T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-03-20T09:00:00","slug":"amid-plummeting-diversity-at-medical-schools-a-warning-of-dei-crackdowns-chilling-effect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/?p=4540","title":{"rendered":"Amid Plummeting Diversity at Medical Schools, a Warning of DEI Crackdown\u2019s \u2018Chilling Effect\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Trump administration\u2019s crackdown on DEI programs<\/a> could exacerbate an unexpectedly steep drop in diversity among medical school students, even in states like California, where public universities have been navigating bans on affirmative action for decades. Education and health experts warn that, ultimately, this could harm patient care.<\/p>\n

Since taking office, President Donald Trump has issued a handful of executive orders aimed at terminating all diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, initiatives in federally funded programs. And in his March 4 address to Congress<\/a>, he described the Supreme Court\u2019s 2023 decision banning the consideration of race in college and university admissions as \u201cbrave and very powerful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last month, the Education Department\u2019s Office for Civil Rights \u2014 which lost about 50% of its staff<\/a> in mid-March \u2014 directed schools, including postsecondary institutions, to end race-based programs or risk losing federal funding. The \u201cDear Colleague\u201d letter<\/a> cited the Supreme Court\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n

Paulette Granberry Russell, president and CEO of the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education, said that \u201cevery utterance of \u2018diversity\u2019 is now being viewed as a violation or considered unlawful or illegal.\u201d Her organization filed a lawsuit challenging Trump\u2019s anti-DEI executive orders<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While California and eight other states \u2014 Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Michigan, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, and Washington \u2014 had already implemented bans<\/a> of varying degrees on race-based admissions policies well before the Supreme Court decision, schools bolstered diversity in their ranks with equity initiatives such as targeted scholarships, trainings, and recruitment programs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But the court\u2019s decision and the subsequent state-level backlash \u2014 29 states have since introduced bills to curb diversity initiatives, according to data published by the Chronicle of Higher Education<\/a> \u2014 have tamped down these efforts and led to the recent declines in diversity numbers, education experts said.<\/p>\n

After the Supreme Court\u2019s ruling, the numbers of Black and Hispanic medical school enrollees fell by double-digit percentages in the 2024-25 school year compared with the previous year, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges<\/a>. Black enrollees declined 11.6%, while the number of new students of Hispanic origin fell 10.8%. The decline in enrollment of American Indian or Alaska Native students was even more dramatic, at 22.1%. New Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander enrollment declined 4.3%.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew this would happen,\u201d said Norma Poll-Hunter, AAMC\u2019s senior director of workforce diversity. \u201cBut it was double digits \u2014 much larger than what we anticipated.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fear among educators is the numbers will decline even more under the new administration.<\/p>\n

At the end of February, the Education Department launched an online portal<\/a> encouraging people to \u201creport illegal discriminatory practices at institutions of learning,\u201d stating that students should have \u201clearning free of divisive ideologies and indoctrination.\u201d The agency later issued a \u201cFrequently Asked Questions<\/a>\u201d document about its new policies, clarifying that it was acceptable to observe events like Black History Month but warning schools that they \u201cmust consider whether any school programming discourages members of all races from attending.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt definitely has a chilling effect,\u201d Poll-Hunter said. \u201cThere is a lot of fear that could cause institutions to limit their efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Numerous requests for comment from medical schools about the impact of the anti-DEI actions went unreturned. University presidents are staying mum on the issue to protect their institutions, according to reporting<\/a> from The New York Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Utibe Essien, a physician and UCLA assistant professor, said he has heard from some students who fear they won\u2019t be considered for admission under the new policies. Essien, who co-authored a study on the effect of affirmative action bans<\/a> on medical schools, also said students are worried medical schools will not be as supportive toward students of color as in the past.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth of these fears have the risk of limiting the options of schools folks apply to and potentially those who consider medicine as an option at all,\u201d Essien said, adding that the \u201clawsuits around equity policies and just the climate of anti-diversity have brought institutions to this place where they feel uncomfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n

In early February, the Pacific Legal Foundation filed a lawsuit<\/a> against the University of California-San Francisco\u2019s Benioff Children\u2019s Hospital Oakland over an internship program designed to introduce \u201cunderrepresented minority high school students to health professions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attorney Andrew Quinio filed the suit, which argues that its plaintiff, a white teenager, was not accepted to the program after disclosing in an interview that she identified as white.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a legal standpoint, the issue that comes about from all this is: How do you choose diversity without running afoul of the Constitution?\u201d Quinio said. \u201cFor those who want diversity as a goal, it cannot be a goal that is achieved with discrimination.\u201d<\/p>\n

UC Health spokesperson Heather Harper declined to comment on the suit on behalf of the hospital system.<\/p>\n

Another lawsuit filed in February<\/a> accuses the University of California of favoring Black and Latino students over Asian American and white applicants in its undergraduate admissions. Specifically, the complaint states that UC officials pushed campuses to use a \u201cholistic\u201d approach to admissions and \u201cmove away from objective criteria towards more subjective assessments of the overall appeal of individual candidates.\u201d<\/p>\n

The scrutiny of that approach to admissions could threaten diversity at the UC-Davis School of Medicine, which for years has employed a \u201crace-neutral, holistic admissions model\u201d that reportedly tripled<\/a> enrollment of Black, Latino, and Native American students.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do you define diversity? Does it now include the way we consider how someone\u2019s lived experience may be influenced by how they grew up? The type of school, the income of their family? All of those are diversity,\u201d said Granberry Russell, of the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education. \u201cWhat might they view as an unlawful proxy for diversity equity and inclusion? That\u2019s what we\u2019re confronted with.\u201d<\/p>\n

California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, recently joined other state attorneys general to issue guidance<\/a> urging that schools continue their DEI programs despite the federal messaging, saying that legal precedent allows for the activities. California is also among several states suing the administration<\/a> over its deep cuts to the Education Department.<\/p>\n

If the recent decline in diversity among newly enrolled students holds or gets worse, it could have long-term consequences for patient care<\/a>, academic experts said, pointing toward the vast racial disparities in health outcomes in the U.S., particularly for Black people.<\/p>\n

A higher proportion of Black primary care doctors is associated with longer life expectancy and lower mortality rates among Black people, according to a 2023 study<\/a> published by the JAMA Network.<\/p>\n

Physicians of color are also more likely to build their careers in medically<\/a> underserved communities<\/a>, studies have shown, which is increasingly important as the AAMC projects a shortage<\/a> of up to 40,400 primary care doctors by 2036.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe physician shortage persists, and it\u2019s dire in rural communities,\u201d Poll-Hunter said. \u201cWe know that diversity efforts are really about improving access for everyone. More diversity leads to greater access to care \u2014 everyone is benefiting from it.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article was produced by <\/em>KFF Health News<\/em><\/a>, which publishes <\/em>California Healthline<\/em><\/a>, an editorially independent service of the <\/em>California Health Care Foundation<\/em><\/a>.<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n

KFF Health News<\/a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF\u2014an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF<\/a>.<\/p>\n

USE OUR CONTENT<\/h3>\n

This story can be republished for free (details<\/a>).<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Trump administration\u2019s crackdown on DEI programs could exacerbate an unexpectedly steep drop in diversity among medical school students, even in states like California, where public universities have been navigating bans on affirmative action for decades. Education and health experts warn that, ultimately, this could harm patient care. Since taking office, President Donald Trump has…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4541,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4540"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}