Medical School Sticks With Geographic Quotas
Last updated Saturday, October 18, 2008 9:51 PM CDT in News
By The Associated Press
LITTLE ROCK -- The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences has reversed course on plans to lobby the state Legislature to get rid of a law that requires the medical school to reserve space for applicants from each of the state’s four congressional districts.
The requirement is aimed at turning out doctors who will return to their home regions, oftentimes rural areas, to practice medicine. Last year, university officials said the provision wasn’t working and was forcing the school, in some instances, to admit applicants less qualified than others.
But Dr. Richard Wheeler, executive associate dean for academic affairs, said Friday that as the 2009 legislative session draws near, repeal of the geographic quotas seems less of a priority. Wheeler said university officials also didn’t see much of a chance that lawmakers would scrap the requirement.
“They (the quotas) are not terribly effective, but they are not a huge problem for us,” Wheeler said. “I just don’t see us getting into a big hassle while we’ve got other things to work on.”
Legislative priorities for the school this year include increased funding for its northwest Arkansas campus and its Area Health Education Centers and restoring $5 million lost in budget cuts earlier this year, university spokeswoman Liz Caldwell said.
During a Legislative Council meeting, Rep. Barry Hyde, D-North Little Rock, asked if deserving students from certain congressional districts were being left out in favor of less-deserving ones from other districts.
Wheeler said the university “jumps over” some deserving students to comply with the quotas.
University officials also have said the quotas haven’t led to poor students being selected because the school makes sure everyone is of the necessary caliber to graduate.
University has 160 spots available for applicants for the freshman class. By law, the school has to reserve 27 spots from each of the congressional districts. But according to university figures, only 28 percent of medical school graduates from 1996 to 2000 returned to their home districts.
Last November, Dr. Debra Fiser, university vice chancellor and dean of the College of Medicine, said the law wasn’t working and the school would like to be free of the quotas.
“We would like to have the flexibility to offer admission to the most qualified candidate regardless of county of origin,” she said. “We then would like to see us focus some efforts on some other ways to entice students to practice in rural areas that are definitely in need of more physicians.”
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