I Was Fired From Old Dominion for Asking Questions About DEI

I’m a doctor. Before being sacked from the board, I’d requested to review the medical school curriculum

By Stanley Goldfarb. He is a former associate dean of curriculum at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, is chairman of Do No Harm. Excerpts:

"On Jan. 31, the Democrat-controlled Virginia Senate fired me from the 17-member Old Dominion University Board of Visitors. I’d taken my seat on the board in July, when Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin appointed me, but the General Assembly declined to confirm my appointment, along with 13 other Youngkin appointees to various public boards and agencies."

"My first interaction with the board came in late July, when I attended orientation. I asked P. Murry Pitts, the rector who leads the board and was appointed by Virginia’s previous Democratic governor, if I could peruse the medical school curriculum. All I needed was an access code for the online portal, but the rector declined. When I repeated my request in an August email, he stood firm. It wasn’t the board’s responsibility “to run the university,” he wrote. Its “sole purpose . . . is to govern the university.”"

"While the rector pointed out that the board’s most important job is selecting the president, the board’s website makes clear that we have “the power to make all rules and regulations concerning the University.”"

"The following month, after my first full board meeting, I asked Mr. Pitts if I could meet with Alfred Abuhamad, dean of the medical school. I assured Mr. Pitts via email that I had no intention of disrupting the school’s operations. I simply wanted to hear from Dr. Abuhamad “about his plans and gain a better insight into the institution.” The rector again rebuffed me, saying it didn’t pertain to our duty “to oversee the strategic direction” of the university."

"boards are supposed to supervise, and when they don’t, you end up with situations like at Harvard and Penn."

"I came to the December board meeting with a new plan: to introduce a resolution asking for the medical school’s admissions data."

"Desiring to maintain collegiality, I privately told the rector about my plan. He asked me to hold off and share my concerns with him separately. I agreed, though I planned to introduce the resolution anyway at the board meeting in April. The Virginia Senate has deprived me of that chance. Tellingly, the Democrats who run the legislature didn’t fire every Youngkin appointee. They fired only a handful of us, including a colleague at Old Dominion who shared my concerns and a George Mason University board member whose main concern is fighting antisemitism."

"It’s hard not to conclude that I was fired for asking questions that academic elites and their Democratic allies don’t want answered."