Response from Dean Heiman
Folasade Odeniyi
Dear SNMA Student Body,
Thank you for your memo from yesterday. I had the chance to discuss it in some detail with your presidents, Sade and Miriam, and I think we had a productive discussion.
First, I want to take a moment to acknowledge and appreciate all of you. The experiences and wisdom that you bring to the College of Medicine make the school and the people in it better—as people and as physicians. I realize that sharing your wisdom and experience can be very painful, because they are often born from the trauma of interpersonal and institutional racism. It is essential that every physician understand the tragic impact of that racism on patients, communities, and colleagues. I also recognize that telling your stories takes a lot of time, time that other students will spend studying for the next exam or in self-care. As a white woman, I want to help in whatever way I can to amplify your voices and alleviate the burden on you, knowing that neither I nor any textbook can begin to teach your experience that in the way that you or your BIPOC professors can do.
In looking at your memo, I see some items that I hope have been addressed.
1) Katherine’s email was as a student leader and it was not on behalf of the administration. Katherine apologized for her initial email, and I hope that that apology is acceptable.
2) The administration has no intention to censor the class GroupMe, which is not monitored. It is your forum. Only if there is egregious behavior, such as discourse that violates UIC’s nondiscrimination policy, would there be any intervention by the administration.
3) I agree that when a distressing situation arises, it is best to address the individuals involved, rather than the entire class. We do want students to feel they can come to faculty and staff and deans if they need to. I believe that if a student were to seek assistance from deans or Dr. Lacy because of perceived mistreatment, we would try to work to resolve the problem among the involved students.
4) We were able to provide an extension on the Block quiz, and you should simply email DOCS faculty and staff (Dr. G and ShIla) if you need more time on DOCS assignments as well.
As for need #2, we did insert language into the weekly letter about the values we deans in COM stand for, and I’ll look forward to continuing that conversation about how to make those values clear.
The hardest to address is #5. I would love to work with any/all of you on ideas for improving student engagement with content related to health equity. Miriam and Sade and I talked about some of thoughts, and I would like to have a continued conversation with your peers during a town hall the week of the 16th.
Anyway, I remain available to come and talk with your group any time. There is a lot more to discuss as the work of the ARUAC begins to take place.
I am committed to making UI-COM a place where every student feels they belong, one where students who have been traditionally underrepresented in the field of medicine feel they have a voice and are truly seen.
I hope that you can celebrate/relax a bit this weekend with the election outcome certain.
Respectfully,
Heather Heiman
Heather Heiman, MD, FACP
(she/her)
Associate Dean for Medical Education, Chicago
Associate Professor of Medicine and Medical Education
University of Illinois College of Medicine
1853 W. Polk Street
Suite 115 CMWT
Chicago, Illinois 60612
Folasade (Sade) Odeniyi, MPH, MBA
Co-President of SNMA, UIC-COM at Chicago Chapter
Global Medicine Program (GMED) Scholar
University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine
Class of 2024
Email: fod...@uic.edu