UH settles suit alleging
med school racial bias
A black student who filed a discrimination lawsuit after being denied admission to the University of Hawaii medical school will get $52,000 as part of a recent settlement.
In the suit, former Big Island resident Chadd Eaglin alleged that he and other black male applicants were rejected for admission to the medical school even as applicants of other races with similar academic records were admitted.
Eaglin applied to the school in 2001 but was denied admission because university officials said his grade point average was too low, according to Eaglin's attorney, Andre Wooten.
When Eaglin, who is part Hawaiian, attempted to get in under the school's Imi Ho'ola program, which admits "disadvantaged students" under a five-year scheme, he was rejected, Wooten said.
Eaglin had a grade point average of 3.38. University officials told him that some minority applicants had been admitted with GPAs as low as 2.3.
The school's average GPA for incoming students is 3.46, Wooten said.
The university did not admit to any wrongdoing, according to the settlement. A UH spokesman declined to comment on the suit yesterday.
In the last 20 years, only one black male was admitted to the university's medical school, and he was a fourth-year transfer student, Wooten said. Five black female students have graduated from the school in the last 30 years.
"This suit really was pointing out a major deficiency and a lack of diversity within one of the elite programs at the University of Hawaii," Wooten said.
"We settled this case to make a serious attempt to make real improvement in a noncoercive atmosphere. Recognizing the facts here demonstrate that ... segregation is inherently unfair and discrimination in public employment is illegal."
As part of the settlement, the university also agreed to meet with members of the National Medical Association's Hawaii chapter to try to resolve "the issue of admissions" at the medical school, Wooten said.
Eaglin attended Kamehameha Schools. He received his bachelor's degree from the UH and is a third-year medical student at the University of Missouri. The settlement will go toward paying Eaglin's out-of-state tuition.