A prominent Louisiana medical school may be discriminating based on race through a mentorship program, according to a civil rights complaint filed by a conservative watchdog with the Trump administration.
The Legal Insurrection Foundation filed a complaint Monday against Tulane University School of Medicine over a medical mentorship program aimed at students from “underrepresented backgrounds in medicine.” The definition used by the New Orleans-area school in recent years for “underrepresented background” excludes white and most Asian students.
The complaint, obtained by The Daily Wire, asked the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights to probe the private university’s “Introduction to the Medical Profession: a Rotation to Empower Students” (IMPRESS) program for compliance with federal civil rights law. The school’s surgery department runs the program.
“We identified this program, which goes beyond DEI,” William Jacobson, the group’s president and a law professor at Cornell University, told The Daily Wire. “We’re challenging it because we believe it’s a civil rights violation.”
He added that many schools across the country are submitting the term “underrepresented” for racial and ethnic classifications because they know they can’t use racial classifications.
Tulane, a private school in New Orleans that has received tens of millions in federal dollars, currently describes the program as an “intensive course tailored” for medical school students “from various backgrounds in medicine” to receive “invaluable mentorship and practical tips for building a successful career in the medical field.”
The program includes “practical workshops on clinical reasoning, surgical techniques, and patient communication.”
Other active and archived links on Tulane’s website refer to the program being available for those “from underrepresented backgrounds in medicine.”
One definition used by the university for “underrepresented in medicine” is “African American, Hispanic, Vietnamese, Native American/Alaskan Natives, Pacific Islanders.” This appears to be exclusively a racial definition and excludes white people and Asians.
“It’s also a violation because it would deter whites and Asians from even applying. Why would you apply to a program where you’ve already been told it’s for certain races and ethnicities, and you are not one of them?” he told The Daily Wire.
Other materials on Tulane’s website describe its “significant gains” in increasing admissions from “traditionally underrepresented in medicine students” and the expansion of those diversity efforts into staff recruitment. That definition of “underrepresented” described not only “groups who identify through race but also through religious beliefs, sexual identity, as well as other non-traditional students.”
Jacobson said the description could deter others from applying.
Dillard University, a neighboring New Orleans academic institution, advertises Tulane’s IMPRESS program as being available to those who “self-identify as being from an ethnic or racial background that is underrepresented in medicine or as LGBTQIA+.”
Fourth-year medical students at Tulane can additionally sign up for a course that gives them the “opportunity to assist with the recruitment and teaching of underrepresented minorities in medicine who participate” in the IMPRESS program.
The complaint from the Legal Insurrection Foundation said the program “appears to discriminate on the basis of race, color, and/or national origin” and could violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits funding for entities that discriminate on the basis of race.
“HHS should determine whether Tulane uses race, color, or national origin in determining access to IMPRESS’s educational, professional-development, and financial benefits,” the complaint urges. “HHS should also examine whether these practices violate applicable federal antidiscrimination laws.”
The Trump administration has taken numerous actions to target DEI programs at private universities across the country, arguing that merit should be the only criteria evaluated for admissions and benefit programs. The administration stood by its opposition to DEI despite widespread losses in the midterm elections last week.
“FYI: DEI is still dead,” the White House declared Thursday.
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