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Case cites leaked memo calling for ‘representation from those who identify as BIPOC and LGBTQ+’

The University of California Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine is facing a federal lawsuit alleging race-based discrimination in its admissions process – a case that defendants hope will be a warning sign to others.

“This lawsuit sends an important message to every institution of higher education: Any school and administration that uses race and racial proxies in admissions in defiance of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard will be sued,” Edward Blum, president of Students for Fair Admissions, told The College Fix in a recent email.

Blum’s organization is one of the parties suing the public university and its medical school, alleging the institutions are racially discriminating against white and Asian students.

The others are Do No Harm Medicine, an organization that opposes identity politics in health care, and Kelly Mahoney, a student whose application was rejected despite scoring in the 96th percentile on the MCAT. She is a white female, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit, first reported at the Washington Free Beacon, cites whistleblowers’ concerns about the admissions committee and Dean of Admissions Jennifer Lucero.

“They report that, under the guise of ‘holistic’ review, Geffen requires applicants to submit responses that are intended to allow the Committee to glean the applicant’s race, which the medical school later confirms via interviews,” the case alleges.

The lawsuit also cites a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services investigation into the medical school, launched in March, to determine whether it “gives unlawful preference to applicants based on their race, color, or national origin.”

When contacted about the lawsuit, a UCLA spokesperson told The Fix the medical school adheres to non-discrimination laws.

“UCLA’s medical school is committed to fair processes in all of our programs and activities, consistent with federal and state anti-discrimination laws,” the medical school’s media relations office told The Fix in an emailed statement Tuesday.

The medical school’s “Diversity Statement” says “the core values of diversity and inclusion are inseparable from our institutional goals,” and the school is “committed to recruiting and retaining outstanding students, residents, fellows, staff, and faculty from diverse backgrounds.”

However, the lawsuit alleges ongoing discrimination by university officials.

Among the other evidence, it cites a leaked memo that outlines a list of “Guiding Principles for Student Representation” on the UCLA School of Medicine Admissions Committee.

As The Fix reported earlier this month, the memo states that committee leaders must ensure “representation from those who identify as BIPOC and LGBTQ+.”

The lawsuit alleges Lucero, who became dean of admissions in 2020, is leading the race-based admissions practices.

She is “an outspoken advocate for using race to make admission and hiring decisions in medical schools and hospitals,” the suit claims, continuing:

“Lucero and her handpicked committee members routinely and openly discuss race (and racial proxies) and use race as a factor to make admission decisions. Lucero berates and belittles committee members who raise concerns about admitting minority students because of their race despite low GPAs and MCAT scores. At UCLA Medical School, race is not only a factor but often decisive—above GPA and MCAT scores—in making admission decisions.”

Whistleblowers said Lucero defended the school’s admissions strategy at a 2021 admissions committee meeting by emphasizing a need for diversity, according to a 2024 Free Beacon report.

“The candidate’s scores shouldn’t matter, because we need people like this in the medical school,” Lucero allegedly stated, according to two people who attended the meeting.

Lucero reportedly cited the high mortality rates among African American women as a rationale for prioritizing black applicants, saying “we need people like this in the medical school.”

The lawsuit also cites admission statistics between 2020 and 2023 that show the majority of applicants are white and Asian (73%). However, over the same period, “the percentage of matriculants to Geffen who are white and Asian plummeted: 65.7% in 2020, 57.1% in 2021, 57.8% in 2022, and 53.7% in 2023.”

According to Compare Medical Schools, a website that tracks medical school admissions data, UCLA’s medical school has an acceptance rate of 1.56 percent.

For the 2025 admissions cycle, the average admitted student had an MCAT score of 515 and a GPA of 3.85—figures close to the national average for U.S. medical schools.

“In this race based system, all applicants are deprived of their right to equal treatment and the opportunity to pursue their lifelong dream of becoming a doctor because of utterly arbitrary criteria,” the lawsuit alleges.

The lawsuit claims that the statistics, the guiding principles document, and Lucero’s reported commentary on diversity, prove that the school is illegally discriminating against students based upon their race.

“Lucero and the Admissions Committee routinely admit black applicants with below-average GPA and MCAT scores—even significantly below-average scores—while requiring whites and Asians to have near-perfect scores to even be seriously considered,” the lawsuit claims.

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IMAGE CAPTION AND CREDIT: A medical school class meets. FatCamera/Canva Pro

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