New undergraduate college program puts UNO undergrads on affirmative action path to UNMC College of Medicine

Minority undergraduate students at UNO are being fast-tracked to UNMC College of Medicine,
but it's not an 'affirmative action program' according to UNO and UNMC officials.

The Urban Health Opportunities Program provides tuition, mentoring, and other benefits to undergraduate students at the University of Nebraska at Omaha who want to be doctors in Omaha, especially in the underserved northeast and southeast areas of Omaha.

Undergrads enrolled in the Urban Health Opportunities Program at UNO
are mentored and fast-tracked into UNMC College of Medicine as a way
to avoid the label of being part of an 'affirmative action program'

Those who satisfy program requirements will get into medical school at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. The program is a way to increase diversity among doctors in the region.

While program officials say this isn’t affirmative action, it is nonetheless an effort to introduce more minorities into the medical field, especially those who can speak foreign languages and who have a passion for working in low-income communities.

This is about improving access to health care for many in the community and not about meeting quotas, said Dr. Jeff Hill, associate dean of admissions and student affairs at the UNMC College of Medicine.

Hill said minorities make up only about 10 percent of the first-year class in the College of Medicine this semester. Currently 13 undergraduate students representing all four classes are taking part in the program, which began this year. Three freshmen will join the program each year.

“Right now, we see the need in Omaha,” Hill said. “This is a mission-based program.”

Once in medical school at UNMC, those medical students who graduated in the program will mentor those in the undergraduate program.

To get into the program, students must have high academic achievements in high school, write essays about becoming a doctor, and undergo interviews which sounds like the usual requirements for entering into medical school.

Students in the program must take various science courses, maintain a 3.25 grade point average, do volunteer work, attend meetings and achieve at least an average score on the national medical school entrance exam, or MCAT. They must be citizens or permanent residents in the U.S. and be residents of the state of Nebraska. 

It goes without saying that enrollees of the program cannot cheat or engage in criminal behavior.

Enrollees also receive mentoring, free undergrad tuition and preparation for the MCAT, among other services.

Davis repeatedly emphasized that this is not an affirmative action program. The Nebraska electorate barred any affirmative action measures eight years ago through a constitutional amendment, so it appears that a rose by any other name is not an affirmative action measure.

At least one white student is in the program because he is committed to its goals and speaks Spanish. “We go for a broad range of diversity and all that that means,” Davis said. 

Even affirmative action programs must have some token whites in them.

References:

• Omaha World-Herald—Seeking more diverse doctors for Omaha, new program puts UNO undergrads on path to UNMC (8/30/16)
• Grand Island Independent—New medical program seeks to diversify physicians in Omaha (8/30/16)
• Washington Times—New medical program seeks to diversify physicians in Omaha (8/30/16)