Tulane Medical School faculty removed from position after suing for discrimination
February 15, 2021
Dr. Princess Dennar, an administrator in the Tulane School of Medicine, sued Tulane University, alleging discrimination stemming from racism and sexism. Dennar was recently removed from her position as a program director in the School of Medicine. Dennar is the first Black woman to hold the role of medical director.
In her lawsuit, Dennar accused Dr. Jeffrey Wiese and Dr. Lee Hamm, senior vice president and dean of the School of Medicine, of racism towards her and to others who worked with her who are of minority backgrounds. Dennar stated that residents of a minority background were forced to complete a more difficult rotation schedule and were denied access to needed skills and training. When Dennar brought these and other concerns up to Wiese and Hamm, she recalled being threatened and retaliated against by them. The lawsuit also cites Wiese and Hamm’s actions to diminish Dennar’s leadership and authority such as relocating her program without consulting her and taking her off the MedHub online platform, thereby hindering her ability to perform.
Hamm has denied the accusations of racism that were made in Dennar’s lawsuit.
According to Mike Strecker, executive director of public relations, Dennar is still a clinical faculty member in the School of Medicine, but her role as director of the Meds Peds residency program has been suspended and is currently under review. The Meds Peds residency program was put under review by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, the organization responsible for accrediting all graduate medical training programs for physicians in the U.S. The program was placed on a “warning status” which then triggered an automatic review of the program by the Graduate Medical Education Committee which, according to Strecker, is comprised of diverse Tulane faculty and medical residents from across the school and individuals from other institutions.
An Instagram account named @wokedoctors posted a photo of Dennar. They captioned it “In fear of losing white applicants, Tulane Medical School fired their first Black female Program Director #JusticeforDrDennar.” The post has been circulting on Instagram since it was posted three days ago.
“Tulane University is committed to fostering an equitable and inclusive community and discrimination, in any form, has no place and is not tolerated,” Strecker told The Hullabaloo.
Herbert Moore • Jul 14, 2021 at 10:26 am
Please advise from which perspective in YULMAN STADIUM affords the best view of replays
And not having to look into the sun at an 11:00 game.
BOOMER SOONER
CantEvenAnymore • Apr 30, 2021 at 11:16 am
wouldn’t we all like to hear more? yea…we should before making any conclusions and assuming.
Lotta people here QUICK to support or deny. We should, consider, that someone who worked this hard and got this far
probably should not be immediately labeled as “playing a race card,” before learning squat about her case.
https://www.medpagetoday.com/special-reports/exclusives/91262 <–follow the timeline. Oh, maybe just maybe it was "under review," because of the toxicity of the overseeing program, the discrimination its students were facing and its lack of resources that appears to have been all orchestrated by the powers that be….and NOT because of HER, as program director. Like…maybe read sometimes?
I just can't with this country anymore…both sides. Wild and assuming constantly. Can we all STFU.
A • Mar 11, 2021 at 9:33 pm
Carol A Kostella, stfu. You are so fucking stupid. Not even two brain cells to rub together. How embarrassing for you to be so idiotic. Pity.
Antique Empress • Mar 2, 2021 at 8:36 am
I would like to hear more about why the program was given a warning by the ACGME. That part of the story seems to be buried. If there are serious issues with the program, most institutions would consider putting the Program Director on probation. It has nothing to do with race, but has to deal with leader ship and performance. When that has happened at schools where the program director is white, I don’t recall it making the national news, or any news. Sometimes it really is a performance issue. Not everything happens because of racism. As a society, we have to be very careful about putting labels on things. Instead of improving the situation, we inflame it. I’m getting concerned that in many ways we are falling back in efforts to improve acceptance and inclusiveness because everything is portrayed as racist.
Nicholas Nagrani • Mar 1, 2021 at 2:18 pm
As a former renal fellow who trained under Dr. Hamm and knew Dr. Wiese when he first came to Tulane, I think the assertion that either of these individuals is racist is laughable. Dr. Hamm dealt with nephrology fellows from every race and gender. He is nothing if not a gentleman and a great teacher. Dr. Wiese was nothing but a true professional who interacted with respect to residents of all ethnicities and races.
I do not know specifics of this case, but I know both of these individuals and feel that the accusations do not sound like the colleagues I know. Maybe before people impugn them as racists, they should hear both sides.
Rational Thinker • Feb 18, 2021 at 8:16 pm
Equity = Racism and Communism
Equality = Fairness and Just
Not a Buffoon • Feb 18, 2021 at 8:11 pm
@Dear buffoon stfu We get it, you defend the black girl before the White MD. Shut up, your racism doesn’t have to be so loud.
Analyze Tulane Motives • Feb 18, 2021 at 7:31 pm
Right now there’s an extreme hot bed of racial discourse going on. Tulane has positioned itself as a work institution. Taking on this action, especially an action against a doctor who had already filed a complaint, they had to have known that this was the outcome.
If an outside group put this program on a warning status triggering a review. There probably was at least some point of contention or issue with the program.
Tulane’s decision was probably a different one, but from a PR perspective makes no sense. Due to Tulane’s racial issues it would have been better for them to keep her on. Because of this I imagine there was some sort of medical malpractice issue. And in the long run that’s a hell of a lot cheaper than a few whiny Instagram stories.
Curmudgeon • Feb 18, 2021 at 1:36 pm
@Not a Bafoon
You do not know what hearsay is. If a statement is made by a party-opponent, it is a non-hearsay admission.
@all
I have no opinion about Dr. Dennar. The article states that the Meds Peds residency program was put under review by the Accreditation Council, the role of which suggests that it is not affiliated with Tulane. If the program is under review by an external agency, that would seem to be a legitimate reason separate from race to remove Dr. Dennar from her leadership role of that program, but that would likely depend on the reasons the program is under review. The article never addresses this fairly critical point, and instead implicitly supports Dr. Dennar’s accusations of racism. Her allegations may be true; they may be not. Evidence matters. Anyone forming a conclusive opinion based on this article isn’t reading or thinking carefully.
Spencer Hansen • Feb 18, 2021 at 12:15 pm
Difficult to hear/read all this. Let’s get back to basics (me included) which is the only thing that will help see everyone involved through it all: love and listening
so simple…so complex
c. tweedie • Feb 18, 2021 at 10:13 am
in response to the previous commenter. you spelled buffoon wrong. i want you to sit with that, first.
Tulane is not a “radically left” university. if that was the case, the police budget of the school would not exceed $6 million a year, the school would pay workers more than the federal minimum, and Fitts would respond to the needs of the students instead of the demands of a board of billionaire directors. this school is moderate at best, politically. but politics is not the most pressing issue with this case.
racism is the issue. it’s not a “race card” it’s not liberalism manifesting, it’s not hearsay, and it’s not affirmative action. these are buzzwords meant to distract you. it’s racism uplifted and legitimized by institutional power.
i attend a university that was once a slave plantation, a university whose many buildings are STILL named after Confederate benefactors and Confederate generals. i go to a school that decided to privatize in order to avoid racial integration. this is the history of Tulane that Fitts and his bullshit board refuse to acknowledge, a history for which every white Tulane graduate should be ashamed. Tulane’s SYSTEMIC racist practices are manifesting in the case of Dr. Dennar. She tried to speak out against racist practices, and she was removed from her position for engaging in anti-racist practices. She was removed because she threatened the prevailing white supremacist ethic of a medical school that once touted its eugenics against Black bodies as an accomplishment.
Tulane fears progress, has a history of segregationism that remains unresolved, and i’m sure all these fogeys posting about “race card” and whatever are white Tulane grads from back-in-the-day. i feel sorry for the education you received here and the warped race complex it gave you, but that only speaks to how horrible, how historically and institutionally racist Tulane has been. it’s truly disheartening to know you harbor so much hate against your neighbors.
if you want citations as to anything i said or want to take this off-main and have a real discussion, my email is [email protected]. if you want to sit in violent anonymity and soapbox hate, that’s your prerogative. just keep it off my school newspaper’s website.
Pat • Feb 18, 2021 at 6:27 am
Racism is so blatantly perverse in America that those who experience it are well acquainted with it. You White folks with your privilege love to downplay it because you will never experience it.
Doug TUSSW ‘77 • Feb 17, 2021 at 9:05 pm
I am at the same time appalled and yet not surprised by the University’s response. Little has changed in the past 50 years.
Dear buffoon stfu • Feb 17, 2021 at 3:35 pm
We get it, you defend the white guy before the Black MD. Shut up, your racism doesn’t have to be so loud.
Not a Bafoon • Feb 17, 2021 at 8:26 am
Do any of you blind sheep in the comments realize everything you’re claiming that is objectively true is hear say? Dr.Dennar is making claims that this individual said something which he and the university denies. It’s word against word. Until proven otherwise, it didn’t happen. Stop assuming everyone is racist. Use a little bit of logical reasoning.
I find it hilarious that the “woke” culture Tulane breeds through its on-campus bubble and radically left admissions office is coming to back to bite it in the a**. Maybe you shouldn’t have bred such a radically left wing culture at your university fitts. You wouldn’t be in this predicament now would you. Stop welcoming radical borderline insane equity commies into your university buddy. It’ll pay off in the long run.
Anti-Racist • Feb 17, 2021 at 8:23 am
Carol, if you actually took the time to read the case submitted by Dr. Dennar you would see that when she was initially interview for the position she was told by the Chair of Internal Medicine, “I don’t want to change the face of Tulane. I’m afraid that white medical students wouldn’t follow or rank favorably a program with a black program director.” And after she did reach full leadership, he refused to acknowledge her position as program director until she had a white assistant PD to aid in recruiting white residents.
Seeker • Feb 17, 2021 at 8:07 am
Oh well hmm it seems I got fired for doing a bad job. Hmmm what should I do, you know it wasn’t my fault right, it was the system yeahhh it was the system. I think I’ll open a discrimination suit because that always seems to fix things.
Nothing other than someone pulling the race card to scapegoat their own failures. Hope Tulane opens up a defamation suit against her.
S. Thornton • Feb 16, 2021 at 5:48 pm
My daughter has been accepted into the 2021 Freshman class at Tulane in the Honors Program and she is interested in attending medical school. It troubles me that my very intelligent and extremely studious daughter has to hear about this level racism regardless of where its coming from especially from the school that has been my top choice for her. In terms of Dr. Denner’s case, last I knew, all doctors in the medical field have to take the same boards in order to practice. The doctor’s case will play out in court. My hope is the school’s program will not suffer because of this unfortunate incident.
We have to be very careful about how the word racism is used because it points to some very serious ills that are still underlying and present in this country. There isnt room for any of us to exist any longer in this country with the ills of the past. We will always have problems and evidence of this country’s past, but we cant move forward until we truly face what our issues truly are and face them head on.
Carol really needs to read more…
Rosetta Thomas • Feb 16, 2021 at 4:01 pm
Medicine has always been one of the most socially stratified and racially homogenous Fields that at one time legally restricted minorities access to study and work in this field. White males aided and abetted by the likes of Ms. Racist Kostello remain ardent defenders of the lost cause – to preserve this false and sad idea of whiteness. It is an entrenched mental disorder this phobia they carry. Doctors you must give no energy to the likes of these broken and dangerous souls- they have no place in the sacred walls of hospitals and clinics and should not be entrusted with healthcare. Good doctors carry out the Hippocratic oath and do no harm to your citizens. Leave the wicked to the review of Medical Boards and be vigilant to report misconduct while living out your high calling. We need ethical caring doctors not racist insecure mentally deranged physicians still wishing for the good ole days before minorities proved their mettle in all fields including medicine. Your good work matters. Put your energy there.
Samantha Priestet • Feb 16, 2021 at 2:39 pm
It is terrifying when professionals in the medical field make negative racial comments. Yes, I love it when folks show their true colors, however, honestly I do expect more. This has lead me to take extra precautions when seeing physicians now, even specialist. A few months ago, in Nassu County New York, a fireman place a confederate flag on a fire truck.
Deeply troubled • Feb 16, 2021 at 1:38 pm
Richard Lee
“Affirmative action doctor” or “the best”??? What makes you think that an individual who gets into medical school through affirmative action has less qualities than anyone else who gets into that school? There are PLENTY of highly qualified individuals who don’t have the chance to become doctors because of systemic barriers that prevent them to do so. There is no evidence that schools that use affirmative action are lessening their standards because of it. Educate yourself before you speak out of your racist ass, respectfully.
Richard Lee • Feb 16, 2021 at 11:32 am
Equal means equal- if you not performing up to standards then you must resign or be fired.
In today’s society some groups claim Racism and get away with it when they need to improve.
Do you want an Affirmative Action doctor cutting into your gut or the Best ?
Medicine has no compromise-If Dr. Dennar is not performing as she should the its time for her to go, whether she is Black, Asian or anything. I have the feeling that her appointment was made to show that Tulane is Diverse. IT IS!
That doesn’t mean you can slide or not do 100%.
Tulane is not helping Dr. Dennar by keeping her- she can’t achieve her full potential so she should go to where she can for her own benefit, and Tulane’s.
Bernadette • Feb 16, 2021 at 9:34 am
Techically, Dr. Dennar sued Tulane before getting fired so the headline is misleading. The suit was filed in October 2020 and she was fired as Program Director in February 2021. Also, there is a whole movement on Twitter #DNRTulane trending, a thread on Reddit and numerous circulating petitions to get justice for Dr. Dennar.
Critical race theorist • Feb 16, 2021 at 7:46 am
Nobody knows why they fired her. I’ve met plenty of racist asshole doctors and dentists in America. However only an investigation can tell what happened. Thats what the Eop is for.
George Arbery • Feb 16, 2021 at 5:25 am
I encourage all of you who are upset by Carol A Kostella’s comments on this article to lodge a complaint with the Louisiana Board of Examiners in Dietetics and Nutrition at this link: https://www.lbedn.org/index.cfm/file-complaint
I also encourage you to contact her employer to let them know that they are employing someone who doesn’t believe racism exists.
Racism has no place in healthcare.
Tyler Kaplan • Feb 15, 2021 at 9:34 pm
Dear Lord Carol, there’s a lot to unpack here. If by “not getting their way” you mean being treated differently due to her race, then yes, she did not get her way. But guess what, discrimination based on race is against that law. This is based on the 14th amendment to the constitution. Therefore, she has the right to access the legal system as a remedy. This is not an excuse or something to hide behind. If the law has been violated, what would be the “right” was for her at address this?
Karen B Castillo • Feb 15, 2021 at 9:01 pm
Nobody asked, Carol.
Karen B Castillo • Feb 15, 2021 at 9:00 pm
Nobody asked, Carol
Today I learned • Feb 15, 2021 at 8:43 pm
Some people don’t know how to find the definition of words such as equality. All this time I thought they were racist when they’re just illiterate. Go figure.
Juliana Beck • Feb 15, 2021 at 8:17 pm
To Dr. Princess Dennar, I am extremely sorry for what this university has put you through and I hope you receive the justice you deserve. Action like this has no place in education and you did more.
Konrad • Feb 15, 2021 at 8:16 pm
@ Carol,
That’s hypocritical, no? Aren’t you implying you have it more difficult because of your particular skin color? lol.
Juliana Beck • Feb 15, 2021 at 8:15 pm
In regards to the comment made by Carol A. Kostella, I find it sickening that a woman who is certified to treat people who mental health issues cannot comprehend the idea of equality. If we cannot expect her to fairly treat someone of another race, for example, by saying that they hid behind a race card – practically disregarding any form of racism explained in this article – how should we trust her to treat mental health patients with proper care.
The fact that she took the time and thought it was acceptable enough to even put her name down and post these opinions is disgusting.
Marie Elise Guidry • Feb 15, 2021 at 7:52 pm
Careful, Carol A Kostella, your ignorance and racism is showing. Hasn’t your mother taught you better?
Anti racism • Feb 15, 2021 at 7:10 pm
Carol, you comment is ignorant.If she is being retailiated against because of race, that is not playing the race card.
Carol A Kostella • Feb 15, 2021 at 5:59 pm
I am sick of blacks using the race card over not getting their way. They want to be treated equal (whatever that means) but keep using the race card. Try getting through life white, no excuses, nothing to hide behind, it is what it is.