Talk: Minority docs help cities

When first-year Education doctoral student Vinay Harpalani was an undergraduate at the University of Delaware, he saw a news program that really sparked his interest. "It attributed the drop in teenage pregnancies in Philadelphia to the increase in minority physicians in the area," he said. Harpalani presented his ideas on the issue -- which has interested him him ever since -- last Thursday at the first of a Race and Health Seminar Series to be held at the Greenfield Intercultural Center throughout the academic year. In his lecture, Harpalani referred to several studies showing that minority status can be a predictor of future service to the community -- an argument he is now using to try to redefine the debate over affirmative action. Entitled "Affirmative Action in Medical School Admissions: An Evaluation of 'Merit'," the talk focused on the medical school admissions process. But Harpalani also explained briefly that the evidence in support of affirmative action for medical schools also applies to college admissions and admissions to other graduate and professional schools. The event, which was attended by about 15 graduate students, included a presentation of his work followed by a lively discussion. Harpalani conceded at the beginning of his presentation that he was acting as an advocate for affirmative action and that he was using the studies he presented to "create a new paradigm for defending affirmative action." However, he stressed that all the data he was using was scientific and unbiased. Harpalani argued that defending affirmative action as a tool to "level the playing field" focused too much on the negative aspects of being a minority and the difficulties minorities face. Instead, he argues for a new defense of affirmative action which emphasizes the use of race "to assess positive future prospects rather than past hardships." As evidence, he used statistics showing that minority doctors from all socioeconomic statuses are more likely to practice in poor, medically underserved areas. He felt that one of the reasons this was true was that minority physicians identify strongly with other minorities. Affirmative action, therefore, can fill a vital need in helping to serve needy communities. According to Harpalani, studies showed that standardized test scores -- such as the Medical College Admissions Test -- and grade point average only predict short-term aptitude and are not reliable indicators of long-term career success. He felt that if minorities meet a basic threshold level of competence they should not be denied admission to medical schools for having slightly lower scores than their white counterparts.

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