School of Medicine

News and Publications

October 7, 2004

Contact:
Public Affairs
Wayne State School of Medicine
P. 313-577-1429
prognosis@med.wayne.edu

Ethnic Week to begin October 11, 2004

The WSU School of Medicine will celebrate ethnic diversity during the week of Oct. 11. Daily lunchtime lectures will explore several relevant topics. The week will be capped off with an Ethnic Food Festival on Friday, Oct. 15, at 4 p.m. in the Scott Hall Cafeteria. For more details on events, visit the "Upcoming Events" section of Prognosis at http://www.med.wayne.edu/news_media/prognosis/events/index.asp

Message from Dean Crissman:

As we approach medical student-sponsored Ethnic Week, Oct. 11–15, I ask you all to take pause to celebrate the school’s rich ethnic diversity—a trait we proudly hail as one of the defining characteristics of our school. I want to take this opportunity to reiterate Wayne State University School of Medicine’s long history of and commitment to diversity in all its endeavors: among our faculty, staff and students and in all of our educational, research and clinical care activities.

As Dean of the Wayne State University School of Medicine, I am proud to uphold these values. Among our students, more than 20 races and ethnic backgrounds are represented, making WSU one of the most diverse medical student populations in the country. We have trained, and continue to train, physicians of the highest caliber, many of whom have come to us from wide and far reaching parts of the globe, and many of whom remain in the Southeast Michigan area to deliver quality care. In fact, a full fifty percent of our some 900 resident physicians-in-training have trained at medical schools outside of the United States and Canada. These international-born physicians are assured the skills to be highly competent and compassionate practitioners and they admirably contribute to their fields and to the reputation of WSU.

Similarly, WSU is committed to the recruitment and retention of the highest caliber faculty to assure the continued excellence of all our endeavors—regardless of nationality. Moreover, it is precisely this rich diversity that ensures we remain steadfast in our mission to teach and practice culturally sensitive medicine and eliminate disparities: in medical treatment and outcomes, as in all other areas of our enterprise.

“Our Commitment to Diversity” is a rubric of the strategic vision set forth by President Irvin D. Reid. I quote from the Vision:

“Diversity of faculty, students and staff is a major source of WSU’s intellectual vitality and innovative spirit. WSU is and must continue to be a place where people of different cultures, skills and lifestyles can reach their full potential. Such an environment promotes respect for differences while fostering caring relationships, cross-cultural understanding and mutual responsibility. We are a university in which a broad spectrum of informed perspectives gives rise to discussions that prepare us for life in an increasingly unified and complex world.”

 School of Medicine students, residents and faculty represent a wide and rich range of ethnic, national and cultural backgrounds and create an environment true to this principle.

I am personally proud to have each of you as my colleague.

? 2002 Copyright Wayne State University Board of Governors