It was the middle of August, and orientation was wrapping up for new students accepted into the Biosciences Collaborative for Research Engagement (BioCoRE) program, which helps graduate students gain career skills and progress through their doctoral degree at the School of Medicine. The students and the program’s leaders had no idea that only a week later, the program would be gone.
The School of Medicine shut down BioCoRE without warning, along with the IDEALS office — short for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Advancement and Leadership in the Sciences — which had helped fund the program and others like it. Students, faculty and even program staff said they were left blindsided.
“There was very little consultation with anyone within the program or affiliated with the program,” former BioCoRE Program Director Jennifer Ocasio said. “… I think the sentiment from everyone involved, from the students to us to the faculty, it’s just disappointment that this decision was made without really diving deep into what the program does.”…