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Students Push Social Justice Agenda at Harvard Medical School

Students Push Social Justice Agenda at Harvard Medical School

“The students drive a lot of the agenda here.”

Harvard Medical School has a new dean this year and some students view this as an opportunity to promote a new agenda at the revered institution.

According to these students, the study of medicine is severely lacking in social justice.

The Harvard Crimson reports:

Students Draft ‘Social Justice Agenda’ for New Medical Dean

More than a hundred gathered at the Medical School Wednesday to develop a list of priorities for the new dean to help make the school more diverse, convening after a semester of campus activism aimed at selecting a leader dedicated to the issue.

The event was organized by students at the Medical and Dental School and included discussion groups in which students generated items for a “social justice agenda” they plan to deliver to the new dean George Q. Daley ’82, who was in attendance. They requested more representation of students on faculty search committees and increased diversity within the student body.

The discussion among students, faculty, and staff comes months after student activists amplified efforts to influence the Medical School dean search, and after a year of heightened campus activism surrounding issues of diversity. In January, members of the Racial Justice Coalition, comprised of Medical and Dental School students, delivered a petition to University President Drew G. Faust calling on administrators to select a dean dedicated to increasing diversity. About 300 students signed the petition…

At the event, Medical School professor and renowned humanitarian Paul Farmer gave an address highlighting the importance of student voices in decision-making.

“The students drive a lot of the agenda here, and a lot of the dean’s agenda,” he said.

Farmer spoke directly to Daley in response to a question about what a new dean can do to make widespread changes at the school.

“We need a more diverse faculty—senior faculty,” Farmer said, calling the issue of faculty diversity among the “obvious” challenges for Daley.

Daley, who will take over as dean in January 2017, spoke to the audience, his remarks unplanned.

“I will listen. I will listen to every one of you,” he said. “And I will commit myself, on behalf of Paul [Farmer], on behalf of all of you, to aspire to do better.”

This is yet another example of the effort of the left to inject their politics into everything, even the science of medicine. Don’t be surprised twenty years from now if your doctor tells you he’s concerned about your blood pressure, then recommends you avoid microaggressions and spend more time in safe spaces.

Current tuition at Harvard Medical School? $58,000 per year.

Dr. Daley is a highly respected scientist with a background in stem cell research making him a natural fit to take over as Dean of HMS. He also seems to understand the environment he’s stepping into.

STAT News reported:

Daley’s appointment comes at a time when student groups have been calling on Harvard to pick a dean who will make social justice and racial diversity a priority.

As a white man, “I don’t myself represent that diversity,” Daley said. But he said he wants Harvard Med’s faculty, students, and staff to reflect the global community the school aims to serve. Daley said he has tried to promote diversity in hiring for his 30-person lab, though he didn’t have a racial breakdown available.

Shouldn’t medical science be above this sort of thing? If there’s one area where absolutely everything should be merit based, it’s the business of saving lives.

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Comments

“The students drive a lot of the agenda here.”

Well, there’s ya problem right there, buddy…

legacyrepublican | September 8, 2016 at 9:40 am

After all their social agenda changes, they should change their mission statement to the Hypocrite Oath too.

Visiting my old medical school after 30 years made me wonder what these students are enrolling there for?

They like the curriculum (but are taught by the assistants of the assistants of the professors), they like the hours (wow have they gone down!) and the dorms and food are better. They like that the hardest part was getting accepted, competition, drive, excellence aren’t really important in a diverse, safe-space-filled environment.

Harvard and their ilk will churn out politically correct, do-what-you-are-told, functioning at the 70th percentile doctors, but I don’t think these schools have the potential to turn out the great ones the way they used to. Stay healthy, everybody!!

    alaskabob in reply to Chicklet. | September 8, 2016 at 12:44 pm

    Trying to figure out during a major trauma code where the “safe space” will be located and how many “time outs” will be allowed. “I am sorry, the patient died during surgery when the surgeons were recovering from the micro-aggressions of unexpected bleeders.”

Daley said he has tried to promote diversity in hiring for his 30-person lab, though he didn’t have a racial breakdown available.

I don’t know anything about his stature as a researcher, but he’s a lousy liar. If he’s been trying to promote it, he’ll have the stats; they’re the only way he can measure the success of his efforts. Anybody in any field with claims to be scientific will work this way as a matter of routine. He has them, all right; but apparently they don’t show any sort of “progress” which would impress the customers.

Why don’t they just open the HMS doors to one and all, hand them diplomas, and be done with it? Isn’t expecting them to attend classes and study considered a racist microagression?

Morning Sunshine | September 8, 2016 at 10:37 am

Here is an idea – they want minority doctors on staff to teach? Ask Ben Carson to teach there.

Heh, I used to work in that building. 🙂

–Andrew, @LawSelfDefense

Dean Daley’s statement next year at his installation ceremony, after he wisely used the winter to grow a pair:

“I burned your list of demands, I did not read it. You come here to learn. At this school you will learn medicine or leave. Now get to work.”

“The students drive a lot of the agenda here, and a lot of the dean’s agenda,” he said.

That, I believe, is the problem.

Hasn’t ‘social justice’ used up it’s 15 minutes of fame yet?

Time to get back to reality.

More likely future scenerio: “Ah, Mr. Jacobson welcome to our clinic for intake rounds. I see from our MEDGOV documents that you were at one time involved with a “legal insurrection” that promoted regressive conservative thought. So unfortunate that the DSM-VIII hadn’t been available at that time since such mental issues had not been recognized as a serious chronic affective disorder. As you know, the selection of medical treatment protocols is contingent on metrics based on both direct medical and mental health values. We can not afford to treat physical illness if defective mental issues are allowed to continue. Hopefully we can find a remedy for your limited total health quotient.

Question: How did these students get into Harvard Medical School?
Answer: They applied and were accepted.

Question: Who is on the admissions committee?
Answer: Faculty and staff of the Harvard Medical School.

Harvard Medical School can probably have their pick of students entering medical school. I would guess that conservative or Christian students would not make Harvard their first pick. Harvard has the medical students they have because these are the students they wanted. The old “You remind me of me when I was younger.” thing which is very flattering. “He reminds me of me when I was a young squirt. Look at me go.”

Don’t whine Harvard, you made your bed, sleep in it.

This is probably a case where what works for the elite doesn’t work so well for the less-elite.

That is, Harvard is one of a handful of universities that can afford to put a heavy thumb on the affirmative action scales and still select high quality students and faculty. But, less elite schools will pay for such policies with lower quality, especially after the top schools have already skimmed off the cream.

It’s like that old joke, “What Do They Call the Person Who Graduates Last in Medical School? ‘Doctor’.” Because “good enough” may be good enough if you’ve got an annoying sniffle, but not so much if you’re dealing with a life-threatening illness.

If Harvard were doing its job, these SJW students would at least understand the trade-offs. Such as, if the preferences necessary to achieve proportional representation produce more barely (if that) qualified physicians, where do they think these physicians are going to practice- and who will they practice on?

SJW people should only see SJW doctors. If they can’t make the proper diagnosis and treatment, well too bad, so sad.