Sixty-five students at Boston-based Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Dental Medicine have formed the Racial Justice Coalition, an organization that is demanding the university take greater steps toward diversity, according to Boston Magazine.
"It's not a trend that's unique to Harvard, but we do believe that for an institution that really prides itself on the basic, translational and clinical sciences, that we should also be holding ourselves to the same standard in the social arena," said Cameron Nutt, a medical student in the RJC.
RJC members recently signed a petition to Harvard President Drew Faust, PhD. The petition asks for the next Harvard Medical School dean — the replacement for current dean, Jeffrey Flier, MD, who will step down in July — to push for diversity in Harvard's curriculum, administration and admission process.
The petition, which currently has approximately 300 signatures, says Harvard Medical School's current first year class only has two African American women. In addition, it claims only 17 percent of the medical school's faculty is female and a mere 6 percent of faculty members are from backgrounds that are "underrepresented in medicine."
RJC members are preparing to send the petition to President Faust this week.
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