The Stanford (Calif.) University School of Medicine opened The School of Medicine's Diversity Center of Representation and Empowerment Oct. 2. The center is intended to provide students with a safe space to discuss their experiences and concerns about life as a medical student, The Stanford Daily reports.
Medical school trainees, residents, students and faculty — as well as nonmedical school individuals — will all have access to the facility, which is located on the ground floor of the Stanford University School of Medicine Lane Medical Library.
Officials reportedly created the center, nicknamed D-CORE, after five MD and PhD students shared their concerns in a letter to Stanford School of Medicine Dean Lloyd B. Minor, MD, in October 2016. The individuals outlined a number of initiatives the medical school could take to improve minority students' experiences while attending medical school, including the hiring of a chief diversity officer, implementing mandatory diversity training and the construction of a space where underrepresented students and faculty could convene and interact with one another, the report states.
Shanique Martin, a medical student at Stanford and one of the founders of D-CORE, said while the university has not met all of the founders' suggestions, the administration has been incredibly supportive of the need to make inclusivity a priority.
"The police killings of unarmed black men, the Pulse nightclub shooting and other such instances of intolerance … These events were affecting the [medical] students," Ms. Martin told The Stanford Daily. "This space is important for talking about the broader issues of discrimination in the country, as well as the struggles of being a minority medical student."