Vanderbilt Spending $17 Million on a Faculty DEI Initiative Aimed at the Biomedical Research Community
“funded in part by the National Institutes of Health”
Imagine all the ‘free’ college educations that could be funded with that kind of cash.
The College Fix reports:
Vanderbilt launches $17 million faculty DEI initiative
Vanderbilt University and Vanderbilt University Medical Center will spend $17 million over the coming years to advance “diversity” within the faculty.
The initiative, funded in part by the National Institutes of Health, aims to “accelerate diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging in the biomedical research community,” according to an announcement from the VUMC Reporter, the in-house publication of the medical school’s media team.
“This is an incredible opportunity to partner with the NIH to expand the diversity of our biomedical faculty,” Jennifer Pietenpol, chief scientific and strategy officer at the medical center, stated in the news release.
Programs funded by the NIH grant include Vanderbilt Faculty Institutional Recruitment for Sustainable Transformation, or V-FIRST, which aims to increase the diversity of medical center research faculty, according to its website.
“Fostering inclusive environments in the biomedical research workforce ensures that the most creative minds have the opportunity to contribute to realizing our national research and health goals,” the website stated.
“Vanderbilt is foundationally committed to inclusive excellence, and the V-FIRST program puts us on a fast-track to being an example of how to evolve into a diverse, self-sustaining research community,” Consuelo Wilkins, professor of medicine and senior associate dean for health equity and inclusive excellence, told the VUMC Reporter.
The Fix emailed Wilkins on July 17 to ask why diversity is important in research and what kinds of people the program will seek to recruit, but she did not respond. The Fix reached out to two other individuals involved, Professor Alyssa Hasty and Cybele Raver, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs with the same questions. Neither responded.
“Faculty from marginalized and historically excluded groups face many obstacles, and it is gratifying for the NIH to recognize and support solutions to overcoming these challenges,” Wilkins told the media outlet.
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Comments
More reasons to defund the corrupt NIH.
Experience has shown that trying to “increase the diversity of medical center research faculty” always means using racist criteria in hiring new faculty. They will try to sugar-coat their racism, but it will still be true that skin color plays a primary role in their hiring process.