Several Scholarships Funding Black Medical Students In Cincinnati Are Under Review By The Trump Administration
Several scholarships supporting Black medical students in Cincinnati, OH, are under review, The Washington Post reports.
The shift is influenced by a pushback against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts under the Trump administration. As AFROTECH™ previously told you, DEI programs, roles, and initiatives were dismantled at the federal level. This led corporations and universities to adjust their policies in response to pressure from conservative groups. In 2023, the Supreme Court also reversed its stance on affirmative action, effectively ending the consideration of race in college admissions, according to NPR.
“I got into medical school in 1972, and I’m not ashamed to tell anybody that it was because of affirmative action,” Kenneth Davis, a former Black general surgeon who retired in 2020, told The Washington Post. “I wasn’t the dumbest guy in the class. There were the children of faculty, alumni, and donors, and some of them struggled a lot more than I did, so I say I’m living proof that affirmative action worked.”
Davis and his wife established a scholarship endowment that raised $1.4 million over more than 20 years, aiming to increase the number of Black doctors in the region. Now, the University of Cincinnati wants the scholarship to be available to students of all demographics, despite staggering statistics showing that fewer than 100 Black or Latino doctors practice in the region, according to a 2020 report released by the Doctors Foundation.
Additionally, at least six other scholarships created by Black doctors are currently under review at the school. Together, they total nearly $4 million.
“This isn’t about fairness or equality,” Davis told the outlet. “This is about life and death. We have a severe shortage of Black doctors in this city, and Black people here can’t find culturally competent physicians who understand them.”
The University of Cincinnati is having to adjust its policies following a bill signed by Ohio Governor Mike DeWine to ban DEI training and offices and remove race-based scholarships in order “to restore free speech and diversity of thought on campus,” said Republican Senator Jerry C. Cirino, who sponsored the legislation, per The Washington Post.
In response to the bill, the University of Cincinnati, which is among the universities currently being investigated by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights for its DEI policies, commented, “We have asked our leaders to ensure that university programs and practices do not rely on race, color, or national origin when it comes to how we make decisions related to admissions, scholarships, hiring and procurement.”
