10/04/2024
October 2024 – Health Advocate Insights
October, 2024
Health Advocate Insights
The effects of the Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) decision – which overturned affirmative action in higher education – are now just being realized. Colleges and universities across the country have been releasing the diversity numbers of their most recent entering classes and the results are mixed. The University of Pennsylvania reported a decline of 2 percentage points, from 25% to 23%, of underrepresented students. Similar numbers were reported at Swarthmore and Middlebury. Interestingly, the decline was not experienced across the board with Yale and Princeton both reporting smaller declines while Duke University reported an increase in diversity. Responding to this, SFFA sent letters to the legal departments of multiple colleges and universities requesting information on their current admissions practices with the threat of lawsuit if they fail to comply. Additionally, SFFA now has an additional lawsuit against the Naval Academy seeking to block affirmative action in the military academies, as well.
What's going on in Washington, DC?
A coalition of higher education unions representing faculty, staff, and graduate students recently released a statement for their higher education vision under Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. Their vision outlined several key priorities including stronger legal protections for collective bargaining, debt-free college, and additional funding for Title IV institutions. This comes on the heels of the National Healthcare Workers Union and United Healthcare Workers endorsing Vice President Harris for president indicating that the Democratic nominee has significant backing from organized labor.
Congress has been busy on the health professions front, as well. President Biden’s recent minimum staffing standards at nursing homes continues to cause controversy with the debate centering around whether the new standards are too onerous for smaller, independent nursing homes to maintain. Resolutions to employ the Congressional Review Act to overturn the rule have been introduced in both chambers; however, it is unclear how far they will go. Other lawmakers have called out nursing home executives, arguing that senior leadership compensation at some of the largest nursing home chains is in excess of millions of dollars, as well as providing generous stock buybacks to shareholders.
The House also passed legislation earlier this month that experts say would hinder the ability of public colleges and universities to prevent discrimination and hateful incidents on campus. The End Woke Higher Education Act coupled together the Accreditation for College Excellence Act and the Respecting the First Amendment on Campus Act. The former bill requires that accreditation standards not include “specific partisan, political, or ideological” viewpoints while the latter bill mandates that Title IV institutions disclose policies regarding student and faculty free speech policies. The Biden administration came out stating that the legislation would “micromanage both public and private institutions” and “would go beyond Congress’s traditional role in higher education.” While the bill did receive tepid Democrat support in the House, it would require at least 60 votes to pass in the Democrat controlled Senate, leaving the future of the legislation in the balance.
Stanford Commencement via Wikimedia Commons
What's going on in the states?
California’s legislature recently passed a bill forbidding private nonprofit colleges and universities from including legacy considerations in their admissions processes. This could potentially make California one of four other states to ban legacy admissions, a practice that has taken center stage following the overturning of affirmative action by the US Supreme Court. The author of the bill, assembly member Phillip Ting (D-San Francisco) noted that “Because I believe strongly in the value of diversity in higher education, I brought this legislation back in light of the SCOTUS ruling to level the college admissions playing field for our students.” Of the 90 private higher education institutions in the state, this legislation is expected to impact Claremont McKenna, Harvey Mudd, Santa Clara, Stanford, and USC.
Maine has been seeking solutions to improve its workforce of BIPOC behavioral health providers, particularly those from immigrant and refugee backgrounds. The Human Services Career Support Program launched a free training program that guarantees employment for aspiring residential counselors and activity specialists. With national and state underrepresentation in the behavioral health workforce programs, such as these, underscore the importance of patient-clinician concordance in delivering care and ensuring promising health outcomes.
What else are we reading?
- New Report Shows College Rankings Are Losing Influence
- Governor DeWine Announces $88 Million to Support Public Health, Workforce Development in Appalachia
- There is a temporary injunction on Biden’s Plan B Student Loan Program
- A Few Doctors Will See Some of You
- Project 2025: Assessing the Impact on the Healthcare Workforce
What can you act on today?
- Join the SMA Student Assembly on Tuesday, Oct 8th from 8pm to 9pm ET for a webinar titled “Realizing Birth Justice in Healthcare & Health Professional Training” (registration required). During the webinar, guests will discuss the history of birth justice in health care, the forgotten role of grand midwives in this story, and contemporary initiatives in health professional training to resurrect these histories while promoting interprofessional collaboration for the advancement of health equity for birthing people.
- See how you can take action to protect Oral Health equity in the upcoming election – Take action with the Oral Health Progress and Equity Network (OPEN) to raise the profile of oral health as a key issue throughout the election season. Use this toolkit to approach candidates, brief them on the issues, and encourage them to talk about it during the campaign.
- Promote the Social Mission Metrics Survey (SMMI) at your institution – For the first time in 5 years, all U.S. based medical schools have the opportunity to participate in the Social Mission Metrics Self-Assessment, a free tool for schools to evaluate their performance on activities related to social mission. The intent of this tool is to provide schools with an honest evaluation of their social mission, highlight the areas needed for improvement, and provide actionable resources that will lead to positive change.
- Attend the Changing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Legislation and Policy Landscape Workshop – The National Academies Roundtable on the Promotion of Health Equity will host a public hybrid workshop on October 9, 2024, from 9-4:30 p.m. ET at the National Academies of Sciences in Washington, DC to explore the impact of DEI legislation and policies on achieving a diverse health care and public health workforce.
As we navigate the ever-evolving landscape of state and federal policies, it’s clear our mission is more important than ever. We look forward to your continued support and involvement in our journey to build a more equitable and inclusive health workforce. Together we can drive meaningful change for our communities and the future of healthcare.
To see more of this content, subscribe to the Health Advocate Insights newsletter below.
