Please read this before intending to go to LUCOM. this is a letter addressed to aacomas from students who actually go .
Dear AACOMAS,
This is a letter addressing the institution
Liberty University College of Osteopathic medicine (LUCOM). I am going to write this in an efficient way for you to read. Please bear with me as there is a lot to unfold. I request that you look deeply into this letter. It is truly a last resort to reach out to you as the college will not listen to anyone. I apologize if the letter is sloppy. The things that happen at this school are nearly impossible to prove. Please give the letter the time it deserves. The time we students and faculty deserve and have deserved for a long time.
Table of Contents
- Student affairs and Policy
- Administration affairs
- Discrimination
- Faculty
Student affairs and Policy
There are a lot of policies in which the students and faculty are placed in a position to be dehumanized. If you investigate the school, a decent amount of faculty is resigning, leaving the school scrambling to find someone credible to teach the courses. There are people not qualified to teach certain subjects and they are anyway because there is no one left. Faculty are leaving because of the working conditions within the school. There are no policies in place to realistically support and protect faculty and students from a tyrannical administration. Policy for attendance is hardly written, but we’ve had students completely dismissed from LUCOM due to them. LUCOM changes their procedures almost monthly because there is no policy in place. Real world human considerations are never taken into account. Being pulled over by a police officer or having your car break down among many other reasonable events are not accepted as excusable to missing a class or being late. Subsequently they take two percent off your course grade which has resulted in people needing to remediate courses, the whole year, or worst case scenario be dismissed.
There is a doctor shortage…They have changed from giving ten minutes to arrive to five to one to about 45 seconds although they will tell you it is one minute. They set expectations for us and then change them on the fly and expect perfect compliance with no room to adjust. There are a lot of things this school does to put down the students and faculty that is nearly impossible to prove. A student with a broken leg didn’t walk fast enough to their seat and had 2% taken off their grade for it. At another time, the school released a schedule of exams and changed the date of the final exam without telling students. This caused flight conflicts to go back home to family. Instead of LUCOM admitting to the mistake they
gaslighted the students by saying there was never a change. In a fireside chat, Dr. Raleigh inappropriately compared missing one class to missing a surgery.
Something that may involve life or death. LUCOM is also a
health hazard. In person attendance at the school is required without enforcing the wearing of face masks as well as no option to social distance. We have had many cases of covid and covid exposures at our school. One student had a child that got covid and Liberty told this student to expose a babysitter to covid and expose the school by forcing her to come. She didn’t come and was forced to leave with the option to repeat. Many other schools are exercising discretionary days and the ability to manage life, so this very thing doesn’t happen. This school has more than not done nothing but hurt the mental state of their students. Dehumanizing them and creating a compete lack of empathy. After attending LUCOM I can finally understand why the suicidal rate among medical students is so high. It’s not the coursework it’s the dehumanization by institutions such as LUCOM. Many students started health care medication without ever needing it before.
This next thing is extremely important. LUCOM is NOT following AACOMAS policies. LUCOM has not made their policy clear, and wrongfully accused
many students of
cheating. When a student spoke out about it, he was almost dismissed. The
ONLY reason he was not dismissed was to avoid your attention. LUCOM essentially used their policy in an already stressful environment to
trick their students. All the people accused of this cheating did not get equal treatment. Some got more harsh punishment than others for no other reason than
discrimination and popularity. You risk dismissal if you have a grievance with the school proven by the person who stood up to the school. The moral of the class has plummeted, and students are wanting to quit due to the mental anguish of the school. Many students have said they would have never attended if they knew they were going to be treated this way regardless of the dream of healing people as a physician.
Becoming a physician is not worth becoming a robot, dehumanized to the nth degree. There are so many more examples that could be given, but there are too many to write.
Administration Affairs
There is one thing I want to talk about with administration, which has caused there to be all the other issues stated in this letter. There are no checks and balances within the school. Faculty to hold positions that look like checks and balanced are in place, are dismissed to “mind their business” and forced to shut their mouth. There is no way to support students and faculty to prevent the tyranny the administration has been placing on the faculty and students. The last dean who attempted to stand up for students and faculty was swiftly fired and replaced in less than half an hour with no explanation to faculty.
You can be fired for not treating faculty and students subhuman. Their practice has caused more faculty than can be counted by one person to resign putting the College in a bad place. They are only given one year contracts and are also treated subhuman. Faculty can resign without giving up their dream. Students really can’t.
Discrimination
There is very obvious discrimination that occurs at the school. Faculty will not be hired UNLESS THEY ARE CREATIONIST CHRISTIAN. No exceptions. Many speakers have tried to be brought in to speak at the College about healthcare but were denied for
being homosexual or a different religion (muslim) due to the fear of CONVERSION OF STUDENTS. This is extremely outrageous and unacceptable of an institution that is meant to create empathetic physicians
all people.
Furthermore, students who speak up against the injustices done to them will be labeled as unprofessional on their record given to all residencies that they apply to without their knowledge. Faculty have revealed this to a few select students in confidence trying to save them from never being matched.
Faculty
There are some faculty that reside here that actively teach misogynistic and incorrect medicine. For example. Dr Swanson, head of the anatomy department stated, “period sex is medically unsafe “on more than one occasion inappropriately described climax, made molestation jokes over cadaver bodies, and has actively taught WRONG information which can be proven in the lecture PowerPoints. In fact, there is more than one faculty member that has taught objectively wrong information to people who will one day oversee
people’s lives. All of the faculty that provide what little positive impact this school can have on a student have resigned and are in the process of leaving or already have left.
We a professor leaving because LUCOM disrespected them so much to hire someone unqualified to do their job and tell them it can be learned in less than a year when they have PhD in their field and took all first year medical courses.
EVERYONE QUALIFIED TO RUN THIS MEDICAL SCHOOL IS LEAVING. ALL THE STUDENTS ARE BEING TREATED LIKE GARBAGE AND NONE OF US HAVE THE POWER TO DO A SINGLE THING ABOUT IT PLEASE HELP US.
All I can say to end this letter is that LUCOM is a school that needs to be changed or not be a medical school at all. I would recommend every single premedical student to avoid going to LUCOM at all costs. Even if LUCOM is the only school to accept a student,
it is not worth going. I understand that a lot of people may feel differently, however, these are objective events that have occurred and are blatantly wrong. Please help the faculty and students of LUCOM in whatever way you can. This is a last cry for help. I am planning on applying to a different program in a few years. One that won’t abuse me.
Thank you.
