The U School of Medicine’s admissions fiasco is letting the Legislature show its true color again: white.

Last week, legislative audits suggested that the medical school was placing too much emphasis on diversity, creating a disadvantage for white males.

U administrators are understandably riled.

In his State of the U address, President Bernie Machen described any emphasis placed on diversity as being part of his expressed goals in 1998, when he was appointed.

Medical school administrators say they have no definite criteria targeting gender and race, but they do look for diverse backgrounds. The Legislature has carefully examined the current process for bias, and have failed to find any, according to Kim Wirthlin, U associate vice president for health sciences and Wayne Samuelson, medical school dean of admissions.

The Legislative Auditor General’s report found that in the 2003 selection process, minority applicants had a 50 percent chance of acceptance, while white applicants were accepted at a rate of about one in three. The gender breakdown showed that 52 percent of females were accepted, while 31 percent of males were accepted. Minority females were accepted at a rate of more than seven in 10 applicants.

Wirthlin and Samuelson say that rates can be misleading because if only four minorities are accepted in one year, and then eight are accepted the next, it’s a 100 percent jump, but still only eight are allowed in to the school.

While the Legislature is crying reverse racism, the rest of the country is attacking the school for its lack of diversity.

The U School of Medicine has a higher percentage of whites and males in its student body than any other medical school in the western United States. During the admissions process, the U has fewer female applicants than anywhere else in the country, Samuelson said.

What the short-sighted Legislature isn’t understanding is the importance and value of diversity. Not only does it add to the education students get in an academic setting, it has perfect applicability in the medical field.

If a Latina needs health care, she will likely be much more comfortable with a doctor who shares her culture and language.

While the Legislature is suggesting that the admission committees focus more heavily on MCAT and GPA scores, Samuelson says such scores are poor indicators of medical school performance. Much of what medical students need to become doctors comes from hands-on experience and attitude, not aptitude. But that doesn’t mean that minorities and women accepted to the school are lacking in these areas.

Candice Yee, co-president of the school’s Association of Minority Medical Students, says she has worked just as hard as the rest of the applicant pool to get accepted to the school.

It would be a shame if women and minorities felt undeserving of their positions because of attitudes similar to the Legislature’s.

Just because the Legislature is virtually all white men, it doesn’t mean the medical school should be.