• The School of Medicine once again apologizes for the curricular harm caused by the content and methodology used in the curriculum and for the failure of systems that could have better identified a need for more substantial change.
• Many leaders, faculty, and students have been hard at work adapting the H&S course for this March. While substantial work has been done, the short timeframe did not enable us to make all the changes that we want to make to optimize this course and respect the importance of this material. We are committed to continuing to work with our Anti-Oppression Curriculum (AOC) Initiative teams, our internal and external consultants, and our faculty to design a better learning experience for all, which will be more fully realized in future years.
• We cannot promise that no curricular harm will occur because education is fundamentally about people and people will make mistakes, overlook things they shouldn’t overlook, and choose intervention strategies that don’t work as expected. We commit to working to minimize the likelihood of harm and also to provide support for individuals or groups who are harmed by lapses, errors, or critical incidents within the curriculum.

• The upcoming H&S block has been adapted with a goal of minimizing the risk of curricular harm and optimizing the quality of the educational experiences.

• For each session, the AOC Initiative team reviewed and made recommendations about the content and methodology.

• Following that, our internal and external subject matter consultants, along with student partners from the AOCI-Student collaborative, developed recommendations for session adaptations and shared these with session developers who are working to implement those recommendations. The internal and external consultants are also developing new lectures, panels, and discussions for the H&S block. 

• Weekly meetings are held by a leadership coalition consisting of the AOC Initiative faculty, consultants, and the original course leaders. Final decisions about whether a session should be held, deferred or cancelled are made in these leadership meetings.

• As described in the February 14 update, facilitated small groups, aside from genetics, CMC, and CIC sessions will not be held during H&S. However, the Health & Society team is working to develop alternative opportunities for engaged and collaborative learning during the course. Additionally, plans are underway to design debriefing opportunities for the Black/African-American students who were most subject to harm in the Health & Individual (H&I) course as well as for fair and equitable assessments that reflect the importance of this material.

• Based on input from multiple stakeholders, there will not be a summative OEQ exam for H&S. More information about this year's approach for assessment will be available at the start of the course.

• Drs. Garg, Eniasivam, and Meideros have been part of the leadership coalition and will continue to manage logistical aspects of the H&S course in March, specifically managing course materials and holding office hours for those students who wish to attend.

• Members of the AOC Initiative faculty team and internal and external consultants will also be holding office hours and will be a resource to students during the course.

• The current course review has identified many ideas for additional, enhanced, or redesigned course materials for this important content.

• At the end of H&S, based on their involvement in planning, our consultants will share recommendations for curricular transformation with the deans, faculty, and student body, which will be considered as H&I and H&S content and instructional approaches are re-designed for future academic years.

• Expert consultation, along with input from the AOC Initiative, students, the H&I/H&S team, and other stakeholders will be part of this transformational planning.

• Future town halls and communications will create opportunities for dialogue about this larger transformational process.