The accrediting agency for dozens of medical schools is stripping diversity standards from its curriculum requirements and adding a focus on nutrition that tracks with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s agenda.
Academia has typically guarded its independence ferociously. But the decision by the accrediting agency, the Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation, shows how the Trump administration is shaping academic life across the country.
The osteopathic commission, which accredits 46 schools serving more than a quarter of medical students in the United States, had previously said that a college “must incorporate diversity, equity, and inclusion into its curriculum to the extent permitted by law.”
According to documents the commission recently published online, the group is substituting that provision for one that schools “ensure that comprehensive evidence-based nutrition education” is part of their curriculums.
The commission did not respond to requests for comment.
Students may not use federal financial aid unless their school holds accreditation from a group approved by the Department of Education. President Trump and his allies have wielded tools like investigations and funding cuts to threaten colleges and universities. But Mr. Trump has called the accreditation system a “secret weapon” to change schools regarded as hostile to conservative values.
“A lot of the things that we’ve seen the administration target individual colleges for, it appears that they’re hoping to accomplish those things writ large through accrediting agencies,” said Antoinette Flores, a senior Department of Education official during the Biden administration who is now director of higher education accountability and quality at New America, a think tank.
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Nutrition Will Now Be Required in Medical Schools After RFK Jr. Pressure
