The University of Utah Medical School lavished tens of thousands of dollars on expensive speakers to lecture about ethics in healthcare at its 'diversity' week last fall.
(Article by James Reinl republushed from DailyMail.co.uk)
Critics have slammed the school for investing in speakers who 'grift off academic institutions' and spout pure political ideology.
The lavish expenses at the $35,000-a-year school comes as companies across corporate America lay off thousands of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) hires. The 'bloated' hires have made lackluster gains despite generous budgets.
In November, the medical school's administrators spent around $15,000 on the fee and travel costs for Daniel Dawes, an expert in public health, to speak at its series on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in November.
They also paid Evan Adams, an actor and physician with Canada's First Nation's Health Authority, $3,000 to lecture on indigenous health issues in a virtual seminar for DEI week.
The costs were uncovered by a public records request by Do No Harm, which campaigns against progressive ideas in medicine. The group shared the documents exclusively with DailyMail.com.
'The University of Utah should be spending its money on something worthwhile,' said Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, the group's board chair.
'To indoctrinate its staff and its students in concepts that are pure political ideology isn't fair to Utah's taxpayers, nor will it benefit the students.'
Dr. Goldfarb added that a 'whole industry of consultants has grown up to grift off academic institutions in the name of DEI.'
'This nonsense needs to stop,' he said.
Rebecca Walsh, a University of Utah spokeswoman, said the speakers were not financed by student tuition fees and that the school aimed to offer students a range of perspectives on pressing issues.
'Daniel Dawes is a well-regarded expert in the field of health equity and the social determinants of health,' Walsh said in an email to DailyMail.com.
'The University of Utah regularly engages speakers on a wide range of topics, regardless of viewpoint.'
Dawes did not reply to a request for comment from DailyMail.com. Adams said critics of his online appearance were 'silencing discourse on reform' by trying to 'cancel' him, and did not have the 'expertise to comment on medical curricula.'
'If African American babies die at twice the rate of white American babies, and this cannot be discussed openly, and the status quo is enforced, how do any of us sleep at night?' Adams said via email.
'Our job is to help — even if the public minimizes our realities and talks over us.'
The documents show how Dawes, an author and Covid-19 advisor to the White House, received a $13,000 payout, a first class flight, hotel and chauffeured rides, for his speech and for taking part in a forum.
His lecture was titled 'The Political Determinants of Health and How We Can Change Them.' It covered the political and social reasons that some Americans have better health than others.
Dawes has written two books, 150 Years of ObamaCare and The Political Determinants of Health. He was involved in the creating parts of the Affordable Care Act and other federal government schemes.
Adams, a member of the Tla'amin First Nation, spoke about Canada's efforts to address historical violence to American Indian and Alaska natives and how their health continues to suffer.
A year's tuition at the medical school costs about $35,000, and students typically graduate with debts in excess of $300,000, says Dr. Mark Greenwood, president of the Utah Medical Association.
The Salt Lake City-based school has a faculty of more than 1,000 physicians and researchers across 22 departments with expertise on everything from cancer, to biomedical informatics, and infectious diseases.
DailyMail.com reached out to college student and Republican groups, but they were not available to comment.
DEI talks in schools are a hot-button issue in America, which has been roiled by 'culture war' rows between liberals and conservatives over whether the country is headed in the right direction.
For some, DEI schemes are important and necessary, as they can help to overcome historical racism and sexism and make it easier for people of all backgrounds to get ahead in education and work.
Critics, however, say DEI is a form of reverse discrimination that unfairly blows back on white men.
Others say DEI schemes may be well-intentioned, but seldom achieve their desired outcomes and often make things worse by stirring up divisions in offices and classrooms.
The debate has been particularly heated in medical schools. Some institutions have controversially changed the oaths spoken by students to feature 'inclusive' language, which has for some been cringeworthy.
The medical field has also been roiled by culture wars debates about sex-change drugs and surgery for transgender children, and over masking, vaccines and other public health moves during the pandemic.
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