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.