Neal cites dearth of blacks in school of medicine

Friday, Oct. 22, 1999 | 11:07 a.m.

Almost 1,000 medical students have graduated from the University of Nevada School of Medicine since the first four-year class accepted their diplomas in 1980.

Only 11 of them have been black.

Sen. Joe Neal, D-North Las Vegas, blames "cultural bias" for the low number of minority medical students.

"The school can find very good excuses why they can't find minority applicants," Neal told members of the Regents' Academic, Research and Student Affairs Committee Thursday. "But mostly, once you adopt a culture where you don't think minority students qualify, you discard them.

"Ninety percent of the medical schools in this country have more blacks in their first year of class than we've had in the past 15 years."

Neal noted that his daughter was rejected by the medical school, which admits 52 new students each year, because she wasn't up to their standards. She now is in her fourth year at a California medical school.

"Minorities don't bother trying to get into medical school in Nevada because they aren't going to be accepted anyway," he said.

Steve Sisolak, chairman of the committee, said he was extremely concerned about the lack of minorities in the medical school.

"In the past three years, zero blacks have been accepted," he said.

About 15 applied during that period.

Neal has been a frequent critic of the medical school's acceptance policies and urged the regents to use their power to get the policies changed and to change the makeup of the 16-member board that is charged with evaluating applicants.

"Only three of the board members are from Southern Nevada," Neal said.

He said if the southern part of the state had better representation on the board, more minority students would be accepted.

University of Nevada, Reno President Joe Crowley agreed that the biggest problem at the medical school is "under-representation of certain minorities -- African Americans, Native Americans and to a lesser extent, Hispanics. That is our major challenge."

Dr. Beverly Neyland, who is black and a member of the evaluation committee, said the university is trying hard to recruit minorities.

"But there's not a real emphasis on education in this state," the Las Vegas pediatrician said.

One of the biggest problems in recruiting blacks and other minorities is the competition.

"A lot of students who get accepted into medical school have multiple acceptances," Neyland said.

Dr. Steven Montoya, another member of the selection committee, defended the school.

"We're not admitting numbers, we're admitting future doctors," he said.

Dr. Cheryl Hug, chairwoman of the admissions committee, said a serious problem that affects minority enrollment is the low number of those who are "in the pipeline" -- those in secondary school who are being exposed to the building blocks that would eventually take them into medical school.