Working Together for Greater Equity

Dear Stritch students, faculty, and staff: 

In follow up to our June 30 email, we wanted to provide you with the updates from a series of meetings this month. We are fortunate to work in partnership with a number of constituency leadership groups, including the Faculty Advisory Council on Diversity & Inclusion (FACDI) and our Loyola-Stritch-Trinity leadership collaborative: the Diversity and Inclusion in Medical Education Committee (DIMEC). 

Most recently, last week, we reconvened with student leaders representing the "Petition to Affirm the Dignity of Black Lives" (which has since transitioned and transformed into the "White Coats for Black Lives" student group, under the leadership of Jessica Simpson, M2; Ayomide Adeleye, M4, will serve as liaison to the petition through the organization). We continued working together on a comprehensive strategy to address systemic anti-Black racism and other racial inequities historically embedded within the study and practice of academic medicine. It is important that I begin by recognizing and sharing my gratitude for the passion, patience, and leadership of everyone involved. Changing a system – let alone a culture – is an immense undertaking. Our conversations are challenging yet productive – and, most importantly, ongoing. We deeply appreciate our students' thoughtful and inclusive approach, and as an administration, we are equally committed to the pursuit of a more equitable Stritch School of Medicine.

With that said, we want to provide a few more detailed updates on our process and progress:

• All the meeting participants (students, faculty, and staff) agreed that we need to prioritize projects/initiatives with the common understanding that some can and will happen more quickly than others. To that end, we reviewed a "cross-walked" ODEI program inventory with the Petition's specifics to review alignment and projects already underway. We added estimated costs for some of these initiatives.
• We shared with the group the challenges of realizing some of the initiatives due to the University's current and projected financial constraints caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. We identified a couple of initial and immediate priorities, including: updating the ODEI website content in preparation for a full re-launch following the School's transition to the updated Loyola University Chicago template; expanding the Curriculum Committee to include an M4 Student of Color and an ODEI representative; and filling an open Perspectives position with a Person of Color. 

We know these are initial steps and we have much more work to accomplish in the months ahead. We will continue to prioritize projects and identify funding sources as quickly as possible. We will continue to meet – to listen and learn, dialogue and brainstorm. We also will continue to share regular updates on our process and progress. In the meantime, we encourage you to reach out to the ODEI team or me with your ideas, suggestions, and/or concerns.

As we move forward together, we want you to know that all of us in leadership roles at Stritch are committed to embodying and acting upon our institutional values, which call us to further dignity, equity, and justice at Stritch, Loyola, and beyond. Importantly, we are committed to developing formalized mechanisms that will ensure the progress we make together is both meaningful and sustainable – so that future students, faculty, staff, patients, and all other members of the community will realize the benefits of a more just, caring, and thriving Stritch School of Medicine. Ultimately, in looking and working inward, we are simultaneously clarifying all that we radiate outward as an institution – including the power of seeing values come alive, as we pursue a healthier, more equitable world.

With thanks for your continued collaboration,

Sam J. Marzo, MD
Dean and Chief Diversity Officer
Stritch School of Medicine