Attendees listen as the names of Palestinian infants killed in the war in Gaza are read aloud during a vigil organized by the Students for Justice in Palestine along McKeldin Mall in the heart of the University of Maryland campus. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
"While this one-credit course at Maryland is predictable, it is nonetheless troubling," Reagan Dugan, director of higher education initiatives at Defending Education, told Fox News Digital.
"Coursework that frames medicine as problematic because of its ‘colonial legacy’ is both historically and scientifically unfounded. The coursework seems to go even further and push critical theory into the classrooms of our future health leaders. Instead of training future doctors to serve all patients well, this emphasis appears to encourage them to see patients as oppressor and oppressed. Our institutions should train medical students in medicine, not progressive orthodoxy."
Hundreds protest outside a rally held by President Donald Trump at Macomb County Community College in Warren, Michigan, on April 29, 2025. (Getty Images/Dominic Gwinn)
The class is facilitated by students rather than a listed faculty instructor, according to the syllabus, and includes explicit guidance encouraging students to share their preferred pronouns and self-identified aspects of their identity in classroom discussions.
Dr. Kurt Miceli, medical director at Do No Harm, told Fox News Digital, "These courses focused on identity politics unfortunately shift attention from evidence-based reasoning to ideological framing, which risks confusing political analysis with clinical judgment."
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"Over time, trust in the profession gets undermined, particularly if patients feel their care is being filtered through a political lens rather than grounded in biology, data, and individualized medical need," Miceli said.
Fox News Digital reached out to the University of Maryland for comment.
Fox News Digital has extensively reported on universities across the country injecting social justice advocacy into curriculum, including in December when a Defending Education report revealed the accreditation process for bachelor’s and master's social work programs at top U.S. universities is rife with DEI, critical race theory and other far-left agenda items.
Andrew Mark Miller is a reporter at Fox News. Find him on Twitter @andymarkmiller and email tips to AndrewMark.Miller@Fox.com.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/blue-state-university-sparks-outrage-with-decolonizing-medicine-course-challenging-the-white-body-standard