Black Applicant Admissions Process

Students, trainees, faculty and staff,

On June 15, the Calgary Black Medical Students’ Association (BMSA) released its Calls to Action to address institutionalized racism in medical education and health care. In response to one of the Calls to Action — increase diversity in student body and admissions committee — the Cumming School of Medicine (CSM), in collaboration with the Calgary BMSA, has established a Black Applicant Admissions Process (BAAP).

Beginning in the 2020-21 undergraduate medical education application cycle, which opens July 8 and closes Oct. 1:

• Applicants will have the choice to self-identify as Black. This includes Black North American, Black Caribbean, Black African and multi-racial students identifying with their Black ancestry.
• Applicants who self-identify as Black will be invited to write an essay on why they chose to take part in the BAAP. The essay will not be formally scored but will be taken into consideration as part of the applicant’s overall file review, allowing reviewers to appreciate the applicant’s lived experience.
• To ensure those with similar lived experiences are involved in the selection and help applicants feel supported, BAAP applicant files will be reviewed by at least two members of the Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC) community.

Historically, there has been an under-representation of Black medical students in Canada and research suggests that a lack of Black physicians has resulted in Black patients suffering from a lower quality of care and poorer health outcomes. As a medical school, our primary obligation is to meet the needs of the populations we serve. This can only be achieved if our student body reflects the diversity of those populations and our students are trained to meet their specific health-care needs.

We acknowledge that the Black community is grieving and recognize the emotional labour that members of the Calgary BMSA have put into developing thoughtful Calls to Action, collaborating to affect change and holding the CSM accountable to establishing a just culture. Introducing the BAAP is a step in the right direction. However, there is more we can do to achieve equity and diversity in our admissions process and within our school.

We are committed to working with all BIPOC leaders to continue to define the scope of the issues and find solutions to address them, and we feel especially fortunate and proud to have these student leaders at the CSM whose Calls to Action have inspired other organizations to offer their own context-specific Calls to Action to combat Black racism across the country.

If you have questions, concerns, ideas or a personal story about systemic racism within our CSM community, I encourage you to share your thoughts. Your input will contribute to the CSM’s overall action plan for advocacy and accountability.

By working together, I am confident that we will be able to achieve equity, diversity and inclusion within our CSM community.

Sincerely,

Jon Meddings, MD
Dean, Cumming School of Medicine
University of Calgary