Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons

The Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons' Anti-Racism Task Force recommended that the school, "Engage an external consultant to review VP&S admissions processes for alignment with antiracist principles," "Implement anti-racism and anti-bias training for all admissions interviewers," and "Reassess the utilization of MCAT scores and GPAs in admissions decisions and the role of U.S. News & World Report medical school rankings."

The college's Occupational Therapy program said, "CU OT faculty, staff, and students are participating in continuous professional development training."

The Social Justice Student Coalition holds an "orientation workshop" during student orientation which are "conversations [that] are surrounded by health disparities, race, religion, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation and other social justice issues that can influence the patient's quality of health care."

The Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons' Anti-Racism Task Force said that it will, "Add Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) competencies to the school’s medical education program objectives."

The Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons' Anti-Racism Task Force recommended that the school, "Launch an annual summit on anti-racist principles for faculty to revisit, assess, and make recommendations for ongoing improvements to the curriculum."

The college's Occupational Therapy program "added a curriculum thread on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion" and "Courses are being revised to be more inclusive and informed by the key principle of race as a social construct and a social determinant of health."

The school said, "To address curriculum, the executive coalition developed anti-racist learning objectives using a framework drafted by the Association of American Medical Colleges. The objectives aim to help students and faculty understand the term 'anti-racist'... and to define and operationalize what it means to create an anti-racist learning environment and health care system."

The school said, "The learning objectives include understanding how a physician's personal biases and lived experience can influence clinical decision-making—and their interactions with patients, patients' families, and other members of the care team—and learning how to mitigate the effects of those biases. Another key element involves studying how societal structures might have played a role in a patient's health care experience."

The Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons' Anti-Racism Task Force recommended that the school "Create and implement ongoing faculty development on race and racism for teaching faculty by individuals grounded in critical race theory."

The Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons' Anti-Racism Task Force recommended that the school, "Make anti-racist and cultural sensitivity trainings mandatory for all educators, including MCY educators, and emphasize that discriminatory behavior is unacceptable and punishable for even the most senior faculty members."

The college's Occupational Therapy program is "training faculty that Anti-Racism is not an add-on to a course. Anti-Racism is a pedagogy - a manner of teaching, designing courses, and measuring learning outcomes."

The college sought a new "Associate Dean/ Senior Associate Dean - Associate Professor / Professor (Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging)." One responsibility of this role is to, "Play a leading role in advising on curriculum development and renewal on topics related to equity of educational opportunity, diversity, and inclusion as well as anti-racism."

The college's "Report and Recommendations of the VP&S Dean’s Advisory Committee for Women Faculty" states that it would "Require implicit bias training for all departments and all decision-making committees (i.e. COAPs, faculty searches, and honors and awards)."

The Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons had an Equity and Justice Fellowship, which aimed to "increase equity and justice through curricular programming." The fellows work "a variety of projects determined by the fellowship group, critically applying an anti-racist lens to the VP&S curriculum."

The Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons' Anti-Racism Task Force recommended that the school, "Increase funding, resources, and staffing to support expanded functions of the VP&S Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs."

Columbia University Irving Medical Center faculty received grants from the University Provost's Office through "Diversity, Anti-Racism Programs."

The Irvine Medical Center hosted an Anti-Racism Speaker Series.

The university's Irving Medical Center has anti-racism resources, such as the "Manager Guide on Discussing Race and Protest in the Workplace," "Black Lives Matter Resources," and the "Racial Justice Assessment Tool," among others.

The Center for Teaching and Learning held the "CUIMC Anti-Racist Educator Institute (AREI)." The event for the Irving Medical Center was "a week-long immersive training Monday July 26 – Friday, July 30, 2021, 9am – 1 pm each day. AREI will focus on themes based on confronting bias, systemic racism in academic and healthcare settings, and course design and facilitation strategies to create anti-racist change in learning environments. Participants will collaboratively develop pilot school and departmental anti-racist pedagogy training programs."

The College Fix reported, "Columbia University has developed new programming to help black and Hispanic medical students 'disrupt racism' and confront microaggressions they could face."

The college's Office of Education established "the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons Anti-Racism Coalition" for faculty and staff. The college said, "Coalition members are dedicated to dismantling systemic racism and bias in work and learning environments and to championing the objectives of the VP&S Anti-Racism Task Force Report."

As "part of the recommendations made by the CUIMC Task Force for Addressing Structural Racism," the college will be hosting the "Columbia Science and Health Equity Lecture Series." The series "aims to increase the focus on racial/ethnic health disparities and solutions research, as well as training/nurturing future researchers for this work. This series brings together distinguished scientists and scholars from within the Columbia community and from other institutions whose work focuses on key aspects of health inequity."

Faculty in the Department of Anesthesiology "developed virtual improvisation sessions—inspired by true events—to help department members handle racist microaggressions in the workplace."

An "executive coalition of the school's Anti-Racist Transformation (ART) in Medical Education project" was formed in October 2021. The school said this was "the most comprehensive effort yet to undo systems of racism and bias in education at VP&S." The school said, "By participating in the project's inaugural cohort of 11 schools in the United States and Canada, VP&S is building on the efforts of its anti-racism task force, which called for advances in curriculum, admissions, student support, and the learning environment."

The school said, "The Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at VP&S hosted a symposium in May on segregated health care."

The college provides anti-bias and inclusive curriculum guidelines which are intended to "combat systemic racism and bias which decrease our ability to provide equitable medical care, and to increase inclusion within our medical school."

The college's 2020-2021 "Action Plan for Anti-Racism in Medical Education" outlines its initiatives/recommendations and recommends that the college, "Create and implement ongoing faculty development on race and racism for teaching faculty by individuals grounded in critical race theory." The Plan also recommends adding "Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) competencies to the school’s medical education program objectives."

The university's Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons will participate in the "Anti-Racist Transformation (ART) in Medical Education project(link is external and opens in a new window) funded by the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation in partnership with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. ART seeks to replicate a model originally developed by the Icahn School of Medicine to dismantle systemic racism and bias in work and learning environments and to promote shared learning on this process within and across medical schools." The university adds, "Participation in ART builds on the work of the VP&S Anti-Racism Task Force, which calls for advancements in curriculum, admissions, student support, and the learning environment. One fundamental recommendation of the task force is to launch a new equity and justice committee."

The university's Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons' Anti-Racism Task Force called "for advancements in curriculum, admissions, student support, and the learning environment. One fundamental recommendation of the task force is to launch a new equity and justice committee."

The Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons had an Anti-Racism Task Force, which recommended "best practices in anti-racist undergraduate medical education, focusing on: Curriculum, Admissions, Student Support, The Learning Environment." The school also had the "VP&S Anti-Racism Coalition ."

The Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons' Anti-Racism Task Force recommended that the school, "Launch a new Equity & Justice committee, including departmental diversity champions and students who will have representation on the Committee on Education Policy and Curriculum (CEPC)."

The school tweeted, "#ColumbiaVPS is among 11 #medschools selected to participate in the Anti-Racist Transformation in Medical Education project, which seeks to dismantle systemic racism and bias in work and learning environments."

The 2021 John Lindenbaum Memorial Lecture and the Columbia Science and Health Equity Lecture Series featured a speaker who "discussed approaches to healing the wounds of violence & racial trauma."

The school tweeted, "Read about how @Columbia medical students chosen as equity and justice fellows are cultivating change by applying an anti-racist lens to the #ColumbiaVPS curriculum."

The school tweeted, "Congratulations to the @ColumbiaMed faculty members who have received grants through two Provost Office programs that recognize efforts to contribute to diversity and anti-racism goals!"

The school livestreamed a "Raising Voices: A Virtual Vigil to Commemorate Lives Lost to Anti-Black Violence and a Call to Action to End Structural Racism." The description reads, "Join us as we gather with our community from the schools and programs at Columbia’s medical center to reflect and heal as we stand in solidarity against racism. Together, let’s raise our voices in commitment to dismantling systemic racism in our institution, in our communities, and across the nation. #blacklivesmatter"

The school posted on its Facebook page, "#ColumbiaVPS is among 11 medical schools selected to participate in the Anti-Racist Transformation (ART) in Medical Education project, which seeks to dismantle systemic racism and bias in work and learning environments and to promote shared learning on this process within and across medical schools. The model for ART in Medical Education was originally developed by Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai."

The school posted on its Facebook page, "Congratulations to the Columbia University Irving Medical Center faculty members who have received grants through two Provost Office programs that recognize efforts to contribute to diversity and anti-racism goals!"

The school posted on its Facebook page, "A medical center task force developed recommendations designed to be transformational—to make #ColumbiaVPS and all of Columbia University Irving Medical Center 'an organization that is truly anti-racist, diverse, multicultural, and fully inclusive.'"

The school posted on its Facebook page, "Medical students chosen as equity and justice fellows are cultivating change by applying an anti-racist lens to the #ColumbiaVPS curriculum."

The school posted on its Instagram, "@ColumbiaPublicHealth researchers report that context is crucial when discussing the impact of #COVID19 on communities of color. Essential to the discussion are historical disinvestment, environmental injustices, and future waves of secondary impact that could affect these communities."

The school posted on its Instagram, "SWIPE 👉 for pics of moments from yesterday June 8, when hundreds of members of the #CUIMC community, along with colleagues at @nyphospital and @weillcornell , observed 9 minutes of silence to demonstrate a shared commitment to making Black lives matter at @columbia and beyond."

The school posted on its Instagram, "Join us Wednesday, June 10th at 6:30 PM for Raising Voices: A Virtual Vigil for Black Lives Lost. Gather with the University Chaplain, leadership, students, staff and faculty to reflect and heal as we stand in solidarity to end structural racism."

The school posted on its Instagram, "Read a message from #ColumbiaMed leadership in honor of the one-year anniversary of the death of George Floyd and the reckoning with structural racism catalyzed by his tragic death at the link in our bio."

The school said, "VP&S students, faculty, and staff have initiated more than a dozen efforts to chip away at the massive undertaking of dismantling the effects of systemic racism in medical education."

The school said, "Despite these efforts by members of the VP&S community, racism remains a systemic problem and demands a systemic solution."

The Fall/Winter 2021 issue of Columbia Medicine Magazine published an article titled "Newest VP&S Students Recite Their Own Oath at White Coat Ceremony" which discusses how 140 students from the Class of 2025 decided to write their own oath that "better reflects the values they wish to uphold." The Class's new Hippocratic Oath includes the following statements; "We also recognize the acts and systems of oppression effected in the name of medicine;" "I vow to use this knowledge to uplift my patients and disrupt the injustices that harm them as I forge the future of medicine," and "I promise to self-reflect diligently, to confront unconscious prejudices, and to develop the skills, knowledge, and character necessary to engender an inclusive, equitable field of medicine."

On June 30, 2023, the college signed on to the Associated Medical Schools of New York (AMSNY) statement in response to the Supreme Court's decision regarding race-conscious admission policies, which stated the following: "the consortium of the 17 medical schools of New York State, is profoundly concerned that the United State Supreme Court decisions in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina will diminish opportunities for talented students pursuing careers in medicine and science. These decisions reject a longstanding precedent that recognized the compelling interest of ensuring diversity in higher education and may undermine recent advances to address inequities in medical education and research."

On June 29, 2023, Columbia Medical Center published its response to the Supreme Court's decision regarding race-conscious admission policies which stated, "Each of our schools has for many years been focused on creating a more equitable admissions process, one that recognizes and addresses the nation’s long and persistent history of racial discrimination and exclusion. This is part of a university-wide embrace of diversity that defines Columbia as much as any core value...The work of understanding the practical implications of the Court’s decision is only just beginning. Going forward, our shared responsibility is to preserve the qualities and values that we cherish, while observing the law as it exists after today’s rulings."