UCLA officials blame diversity for ‘shocking decline’ in medical competence, says report

Officials at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) David Geffen School of Medicine are blaming the school’s illegal diversity practices for an alarming drop in medical competence among students, says a recent report.

Meet Dean of Admissions Jennifer Lucero

Despite affirmative action being banned in California since 1996, UCLA’s medical school has been approving race-based admissions under Dean of Admissions Jennifer Lucero. Lucero, a White Yale graduate who assumed the post in 2020, also serves as the Vice Chair of Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion for the Department of Anesthesia.

The David Geffen School of Medicine’s acceptance rate was just 1.3% last year, which was reserved for the creme-de-la-creme. But while a 3.8 GPA and an MCAT score in the 88th percentile might be a standard for White students, Lucero has been openly admitting Black and Hispanic students who fall short of that standard, simply because of their skin color.

Admissions officials alarmed at Lucero’s obsession over race

In late 2021, for example, the admissions committee had concerns about a Black applicant whose grades were well below UCLA’s average. When some committee members voiced these concerns, Lucero erupted in anger.

"Did you not know African-American women are dying at a higher rate than everybody else?" Lucero said, according to the Washington Free Beacon. She went on to insist that the candidate’s grades were irrelevant because "we need people like this in the medical school."

In email exchanges obtained by the Free Beacon, committee members expressed their alarm at Lucero’s approach.

"We are not consistent in the way we apply the metrics to these applicants," one official wrote. "This is troubling."

"I wondered if this applicant had been [a] white male, or [an] Asian female for that matter, [whether] we would have had that much discussion,” the official added.

UCLA admissions officials have taken the unusual step of coming forward about the school’s admissions practices, albeit anonymously. One former admissions official said: "We want racial diversity so badly, we're willing to cut corners to get it."

Medical students ‘don’t know anything’

Under Lucero’s stewardship, UCLA’s medical school has plummeted from 6th place to 18th place in medical research, a 300% drop. In some cadres that were admitted, over 50% of the students failed standardized medical tests after their clinical rotations. The national failing average is 5%.

"I have students on their rotation who don't know anything," an admissions committee member said. "People get in and they struggle."

A professor in the medical school recalled a student in the operating room who could not name a major artery. The student criticized the professor 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."

An admissions official said: "All the normal criteria for getting into medical school only apply to people of certain races. For other people, those criteria are completely disregarded."

The students who are required to show near-excellent test scores are White and Asian.

Punishments for admissions officials who speak up

When faculty or committee members have expressed their concerns about prioritizing race over merit, Lucero has accused them of being “privileged” and forced them to attend “diversity” classes.

In one incident in 2021, the admissions committee rejected a Native American applicant. Lucero then forced the committee members to sit through a two-hour lecture on Native American history given by her sister.

Who enforces ‘diversity’ in medical schools?

Many American medical schools place a heavy emphasis on racism as an important consideration in the practice of medicine. This is at least in part due to requirements from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), which oversees medical school accreditations.

The AAMC, which claims that America’s health systems are racist, enforces diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) at medical colleges through its accreditation arm, the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME), which makes DEI a requirement for accreditation.