New York City Council Adopts Recommendations to End Discrimination in Medical Schools

Several recommendations aimed at ending discrimination in New York medical schools against members of minority groups and graduates of city colleges were adopted today at a special meeting of the City Council. The Council urged that:

1. A bill forbidding discrimination by schools in New York State be passed at the next session of the State Legislature.

2. The Board of Estimate of the City of New York be requested to embody in all future contracts with all schools which use the facilities of the City hospitals for the instruction of their students a provision providing for the cancellation thereof upon proof that such institution is guilty of racial or religious discrimination in the acceptance or rejection of students.

3. A local law be passed providing for the appointment of a committee consisting of the Commissioner of Hospitals and the presidents of the various City colleges, empowering it, on its own motion or on motion of any person aggrieved, to inquire into conditions involving or charges of discrimination against applicants for admission to colleges or institutions of higher learning which use the facilities of the hospitals of the City of New York and that the said committee be empowered to subpoena witnesses, examine records of such institutions and issue such order and have such other powers as may be necessary to effectuate the purposes of such local law.

The recommendations were adopted on the basis of a report submitted by a special investigating committee appointed last September by the Council to investigate charges of discrimination in professional schools made by the American Jewish Congress and other organizations. The report substantiates these charges. It presents a thorough investigation of the admission practices of Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons and Cornell University’s Medical College. Relevant statistical tables of admissions to New York Medical College (Flower Hospital,) New York University College of Medicine, and Long Island College of Medicine are included.

COMMITTEE FINDS MEDICAL SCHOOLS HAVE JEWISH QUOTA

The evidence gathered by the committee shows conclusively that the medical schools have a quota directed against students of Jewish, Italian and Negro extraction. The existence of a quota against Jews at Cornell was admitted in a letter by the former dean of the Medical College. Discrimination at the other schools is shown by the statistical tables of admissions of graduates from City-supported colleges. These colleges have higher scholastic standards than other schools, but a majority of the students stem from the minority groups which predominate in the City of New York.

In the last six years CCNY has been keeping a record of its graduates who have attained the above-average scholastic record of A- or better and who have applied for admission to the five medical schools located in the City of New York. The tables show that the overwhelming majority of these students were rejected without personal interviews. At the committee’s hearings, however, it was admitted by faculty members that the medical schools had accepted students from other colleges with an average of B or less.

The report criticizes Columbia and Cornell Medical Schools for destroying in recent years all records of rejected applicants for admission. “It is a well established principle of law that destruction of or failure to produce records concerning material matters raises a presumption that the contents of the records, if produced would be unfavorable,” the report says.