Farmer v. Ramsay, No. CIV. L-98-1585.

• Decision Date: 15 August 2001
• Docket Number: No. CIV. L-98-1585.
• Parties: Rob FARMER v. Dr. David RAMSAY, et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Maryland

Page 873

159 F.Supp.2d 873

Rob FARMER v. Dr. David RAMSAY, et al.

No. CIV. L-98-1585.

United States District Court, D. Maryland.

August 15, 2001.

John Montgomery, Washington, DC, for plaintiff.

Lawrence Paul Fletcher-Hill, Gordon, Feinblatt, Rothman, Hoffberger & Hollander, LLC, J. Joseph Curran, Jr., Dawna M. Cobb, Anne L. Donahue, Office of Attorney General, Baltimore, MD, for defendants.

MEMORANDUM

LEGG, District Judge.

This is a racial discrimination suit. The plaintiff, Rob Farmer, a white male, contends that he was denied admission to the University of Maryland School of Medicine ("UMSM") in 1995 on account of his race.¹ Farmer alleges that he would have been accepted had he been an applicant from an "under-represented minority."² Farmer also argues that UMSM's admissions policies are unconstitutional because the admissions committee, in pursuit of a diverse student body, considers the race and ethnicity of applicants when making admissions decisions.

Farmer charges that the Medical School, under a de facto racial quota system, manipulates applicants' "non-cognitive" criteria in order to admit minority students with weak grades and test scores. According to Farmer, UMSM's stated reasons for rejecting him (idiosyncratic personal statements, mediocre science grades, a tepid recommendation letter from his undergraduate school, and an unsatisfactory explanation for a minor arrest record) are merely pretexts for racial discrimination.

The Medical School denies that it operates under a racial quota system. While the School admits that it considers race as a factor in making admissions decisions, it contends that race is merely one of many criteria that it uses in evaluating applications. The University argues that its limited consideration of race to promote the diversity of its student body is narrowly tailored, and, therefore, permissible under Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, 438 U.S. 265, 98 S.Ct. 2733, 57 L.Ed.2d 750 (1978).

With respect to Farmer's specific claim, the University contends (i) that race did not play any part in the decisions to reject Farmer, (ii) that Farmer's application was so flawed the decision to reject him was not a close call, and (iii) that Farmer would still have been rejected had he been a member of an under-represented minority.

Following extensive discovery and the creation of a lengthy record, the defendants filed a motion for summary judgment; Farmer also filed a motion for partial summary judgment. The Court held two days of hearings. Having carefully considered the record, the Court concludes that there is insufficient evidence from which a reasonably minded jury could find (i) that race played any part in the Medical School's decision to reject Farmer, or (ii) that the Medical School's stated reasons for rejecting Farmer were pretextual. For instance, Towson University, where Farmer took undergraduate science classes, recommended Farmer only with "reservation" in 1994 and 1995 and declined to recommend him at all in 1996. Accordingly, by separate order, the Court will DENY Farmer's motion for partial summary judgment and GRANT Defendants' motion for summary judgment.³

I. Factual Background

a. UMSM

The University of Maryland School of Medicine is the only public medical school in the State. Admission to UMSM is highly competitive; UMSM admits only about six percent of applicants. In 1995, the School received more than 4400 applications for approximately 140 spaces.

b. Admissions

UMSM considers applications in four stages. At the first stage, applications are filtered by residency, grade point average (GPA), and scores on the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT).⁴ Applications from Maryland residents are almost invariably sent to the second stage.⁵ Many applications from non-Maryland residents with low GPA or MCAT scores, however, are rejected at the first stage.⁶

The School sends surviving applicants a "second stage" application packet, which requests more detailed information. All candidates who complete second-stage applications are considered by the full admissions committee, which meets every week. Each application is assigned to a committee member, who presents the applicant to the committee and recommends whether the candidate should be interviewed or not. The full committee makes the ultimate decision whether to interview, however.

In stage three, applicants are interviewed in person by two UMSM faculty members. After the interview, the applicant's file is again presented to the committee, which votes either to reject or offer admission (stage four). Rejected applicants may appeal to a subcommittee, which has the authority to send the candidate back to the full committee for further review.

c. Admissions Criteria

According to the School's catalog, UMSM considers an applicant's "academic achievement, extracurricular activities, personal characteristics, recommendations from the premedical committee or college instructors, scores on the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) and personal interview." It is also the School's policy to give special consideration to applicants who have demonstrated leadership or who come from communities that lack medical services.

The School's written strategic plan explicitly calls for a "diverse" student body.⁷ In pursuit of this goal, the admissions committee uses several outreach programs. One such, the federally funded "Advanced Pre-Medical Development Program" ("the Program"), in which Farmer himself participated, offers free MCAT preparation courses and special admissions counseling to minority and/or poor individuals considering medical school.

Every member of the admissions committee receives a report including the applicant's "objective" data,⁸ a personal statement, and letters of recommendation (which are graded, from A+ to F, by the Associate or Assistant Dean of Admissions). According to School policy, committee members are permitted to consider this information as well as what the School terms, "non-cognitive" criteria.⁹ An applicant's race is printed on the application; therefore, race is included in the total mix of information a committee member receives when asked to vote to interview or reject a candidate (in the second stage).¹⁰ Of course, the race of an applicant is apparent once the applicant shows up for an interview (stage three).

d. Rob Farmer

Following graduation from high school, Farmer spent nine years rock climbing, hitchhiking, and juggling. He also worked sporadically as a part-time volunteer EMT at a fire department. In 1987, at the age of 27, Farmer enrolled at the University of Colorado, Boulder to study English, the media, and advertising. Uninterested in a medical career at the time, Farmer took few courses in the sciences.

Farmer completed his studies at Colorado in 1991. The same year, Farmer moved to Maryland to work for his father. This work was the only paid employment experience Farmer listed on his applications. To the admissions committee, Farmer described his job as "fixing houses in the ghetto," which he characterized as "enormously depressing." In late 1994, after this "family business experiment produced unsatisfactory results," Farmer decided to pursue a career in medicine.

Because Farmer's undergraduate course work did not meet basic UMSM's requirements for matriculation, Farmer, from 1992 to 1995, took science courses at Towson University.¹¹ His grades were, as he concedes, mediocre. Farmer earned a GPA in the sciences of 2.8, receiving "C" grades in several classes, including Basic Math & Science, General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, and Immunology. In April 1994, Farmer took the MCAT for the first time, receiving grades he also concedes were poor.¹²

Farmer applied to UMSM three times: in 1994, 1995, and 1996. Farmer acknowledges that his 1994 application, which included his first MCAT score, was weak and he is not contesting his rejection that year.¹³ In 1995, Farmer participated in UMSM's Advanced Premedical Development Program, retook the MCAT, improved his score, and reapplied.¹⁴

Of the three applications Farmer submitted, his second application, in 1995, was the strongest. His case, therefore, focuses on his rejection that year. Although Farmer also applied in 1996, Towson University refused to recommend him that year, so his application was essentially dead on arrival. Accordingly, the Court will concentrate on UMSM's decision to reject Farmer in 1995.

Farmer's Second (1995) Application

Farmer applied to the UMSM for the second time in the spring of 1995 for the 1996 entering class. Because he was a Maryland resident, his application automatically advanced to the second stage. Farmer's file included his entire rejected application from the previous year, his second (and improved) MCAT score, a second letter of recommendation from Towson University, and additional personal statements. Farmer's grades, employment history, and original MCAT score, were, by definition, unchanged.

Hermione Hicks, the Director of Recruitment for the Office of Admissions at UMSM, presented Farmer's 1995 application to the admissions committee. Hicks noted that Farmer had not held a "significant job" as an adult and had spent "an extreme amount of time" involved in purely recreational activities. Hicks recommended against giving Farmer an interview. After discussion, the committee unanimously voted 14-0 to reject Farmer without an interview.

During discovery, Hicks and other committee members testified that race played no part in the decision to reject Farmer. Instead, they consistently stated that the decision was not a close call given (i) the cool letter of recommendation Farmer received from Towson,¹⁵ (ii) his relatively low GPA from Towson, (iii) his less than average MCAT scores, (iv) the quirky character of his personal statements, (v) Farmer's sparse employment experience, and (vi) the inconsistent, even flip explanations Farmer gave for his...