Progressive policies on diversity, equity and inclusion could literally get people killed in the years to come.
That's not hyperbole, but the inevitable result of the insanity unfolding at the once prestigious medical school at UCLA. Formerly ranked in the top-5 or top-6 in the country by U.S. News & World Report, UCLA has seen its ranking drop dramatically, and thanks to a lengthy report by Aaron Sibarium at the Free Beacon, we now know why.
Sibarium's investigation uncovered a pattern of DEI policies run amuck, thanks in large part to the school's dean of admissions, Jennifer Lucero. Lucero, took over the admissions process in June 2020, as far left institutions like UCLA were grappling with how best to incorporate delusional "anti-racism" ideology into schools.
And Lucero took that absurdity to a new level.
The standards of admissions for UCLA Medical School are as high as anywhere in the country…or at least they used to be. But as two individuals on the admissions committee told Sibarium, Lucero worked hard to lower them for specific individuals based on their race. Which is, of course, against the law.
When one black applicant didn't meet the criteria for admission, Lucero demanded she be admitted anyway.
"Did you not know African-American women are dying at a higher rate than everybody else?" Lucero said to an admissions officer. "The candidate's scores shouldn't matter," she continued, because "we need people like this in the medical school."
And it gets much, much worse.
PHOENIX, AZ - DECEMBER 26: The UCLA flag during the Cactus Bowl college football game between the Kansas State Wildcats and the UCLA Bruins on December 26, 2017 at Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona.(Photo by Kevin Abele/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
UCLA Medical School Discriminated Against White, Asian Applicants
When discussing how frequently Lucero applied race to admissions decisions, one admissions official reportedly acknowledged that the standards were higher for white or Asian applicants.
"I wondered," the official said, "if this applicant had been [a] white male, or [an] Asian female for that matter, [whether] we would have had that much discussion."
And because the admissions standards got so low to meet racial quotas Lucero wanted, the school's students started failing…A lot.
One former admissions staff member described it as a "failed medical school," adding "We want racial diversity so badly, we're willing to cut corners to get it." Those cut corners meant that some students reached rotations without having the necessary basic knowledge.
"I have students on their rotation who don't know anything," an admissions committee told Sibarium. "People get in and they struggle." "I wouldn't normally talk to a reporter," a UCLA faculty member said. "But there's no way to stop this without embarrassing the medical school."
According to one professor, a student could not identify a major artery, then "berated" them for putting her on the spot. "I don't know how some of these students are going to be junior doctors," the professor said. "Faculty are seeing a shocking decline in knowledge of medical students."
Test passage rates for important exams have fallen orders of magnitude behind other medical schools. In large part because, for minority applicants, standards are "as low as you could possibly imagine," according to an admissions committee member. "It completely disregards grades and achievements."
Progressive DEI policies in action.
UCLA An Example Of Dangerous Trends
The fact that race-based admissions, which are illegal, are happening at elite progressive institutions isn't surprising. But for people within those institutions, who are likely progressives themselves, to come forward in this manner, the problem must be overwhelming.
And it's creating an impending disaster. While liberal arts admissions officers can easily, and quietly, give race-based preferences to applicants to suit their ideological need to view themselves as a good person, in hard sciences where lives are at stake, it's indefensible.
UCLA Medical School seeds dozens of local hospitals with doctors, who are responsible for treating and saving patients. If one of the largest schools in the area is this inept, thanks to the delusions of its top officials, it could quite literally cost patients their lives.
This is the result of nonsensical progressive ideologies in far left states like California and cities like Los Angeles, where extremist administrators are working feverishly to ensure that DEI policies are enacted in all areas and walks of life.
Clearly, they care far more about meeting their ideological goals than they do in helping the best succeed.
