Medical school accreditors back off DEI mandates as Trump administration pressures compliance
A report from Do No Harm shows most major medical education accreditors have suspended or eliminated DEI mandates following a Trump executive order and legal challenges to race-based affirmative action.
While some accreditors have rolled back DEI requirements, critics say more reforms are needed to fully remove identity politics and prioritize merit in medical education.
A new report from Do No Harm reveals a sweeping rollback of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) mandates by major medical education accreditors.
Following President Trump’s executive order targeting “unlawful” DEI practices, the majority of the accrediting bodies named in the report suspended or eliminated DEI-related requirements.
Of the 10 accrediting bodies mentioned, seven “have either eliminated diversity requirements, proposed eliminating diversity requirements, or pledged to not enforce these requirements,” the report found.
These include agencies such as the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME), the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), and the American Psychological Association’s Commission on Accreditation (APA-CoA).
In a statement to Campus Reform, Stanley Goldfarb, chairman of Do No Harm, praised the rollback of DEI mandates in medical education but warned that deeper reforms are still needed to prioritize merit.
“We are pleased that many of the accreditors responsible for injecting identity politics into medical education are backing off their DEI requirements,” Goldfarb stated. “While these early results are encouraging, there is still much work to be done to rid our institutions entirely of the rot of racial politics.”
“Removing DEI from accreditation standards is necessary, but to fully reform medical education, schools must also abandon DEI in favor of merit everywhere it is found,” Goldfarb added.
In May, ACGME announced that it had heard “significant concerns from multiple constituents in several states” about compliance with “ACGME requirements addressing diversity in light of state or federal laws.”
“This decision was made to ensure the accreditation system can continue to function effectively within current legal constraints, including state laws and new interpretations of a 2023 Supreme Court ruling,” an APA-CoA spokesperson told The Daily Caller about that organization’s DEI scale-back.
In 2023, the Supreme Court decided Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, striking down Harvard’s system of race-based affirmative action. “Eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it,” the court ruled.
Departments within the Trump administration, including the Department of Education, have interpreted this ruling to extend to DEI initiatives, which they have described as racially discriminatory.
Campus Reform reported this month that six Republican-led states formed a new accreditation commission to prioritize merit and student outcomes over DEI in higher education.
The newly formed Commission for Public Higher Education (CPHE) aims to eliminate ideological content and emphasize efficiency and academic quality.
Campus Reform has contacted the LCME, ACGME and APA-CoA for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
