Brown medical school prioritizes DEI over 'clinical skills' in faculty promotions
The promotion guidelines classify a '[d]emonstrated commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion' as a 'Major Criterion.'
Brown’s criteria are just one example of DEI being promoted in medical settings.
Brown University Medical School values a commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) over actual “clinical skills” when it comes to promoting faculty members.
The promotion guidelines classify a “[d]emonstrated commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion” as a “Major Criterion” for promotion for several positions. More specifically, it entails pushing for DEI in “Research,” “Teaching,” “Clinical care,” and “Service.”
On the other hand, several positions list “excellent” or “exceptional clinical skills” as a “Minor Criterion”--placing it lower than the “Major Criterion” of promoting DEI. Other “minor” criteria include “[s]ubstantial service contributions,” “[t]eaching contributions,” and “[s]ervice contributions demonstrating a substantial role.”
The overvaluing of DEI above medical skills has drawn some pushback.
Bob Cirincione, an orthopedic surgeon, told The Washington Free Beacon that the school’s guidelines “say what DEI in medical schools is all about. And it’s not about clinical performance.”
DEI is being promoted in other medical settings as well.
In 2024, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) organized a seminar in which it expressed support for implementing DEI in “everything.”
The event description alleged that “[r]esearch on microaggressions and bias has shown to have significant negative impacts on individual confidence, physical health, and overall wellbeing,” and concluded: “Therefore, more education and training on responding to microaggressions through bystander intervention is sorely needed in academic medicine.”
In December, the anti-DEI non-profit Do No Harm released a report documenting how the AAMC “pressures medical schools and residency programs to impose DEI ideology on students and applicants.”
Brown University’s medical school’s website has an entire page dedicated to “Diversity,” which states that “multicultural perspectives” are “critical to the success” of the school.
Campus Reform has contacted Brown University for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
