Former med school professor says UTRGV fired her because pediatrics was ‘a failed experiment’

Concerns over professor turnover, specifically physician departures, at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine continue to mount, now with a former faculty member expressing similar discontent as a med student who initially came forward.

Like the student in question, who spoke under anonymity due to fear of compromising their status with the university, Dr. Marsha Griffin, a former pediatric professor at the medical school, shared her concern this week that the university has essentially dismantled its pediatric department after they “let go” of its remaining four faculty members.

“The word now is that there will be no pediatric faculty in the fall,” Griffin said.

Over the course of several years the school’s pediatric department had lost two-thirds of its faculty, leaving the four remaining members with the responsibility of teaching third-year medical students, or MS3, the entirety of the pediatric curriculum.

Griffin said she was asked to join the faculty in 2015 but the contract didn’t start until 2016.

Initially, there was a “tremendous amount of energy” from all the staff to build a medical school that would serve the needs of the community, conduct top notch research as well as advocate for the region.

She recalled the inaugural white coat ceremony in 2016 where more than 150 professors greeted the incoming class.

All the energy from that moment filled her and her colleagues with excitement as they saw the first class of the UTRGV School of Medicine, she said.

However, as the years went on the school began to lose faculty, eventually leading to about 22 on stage last year to greet the newest class.

“That alone should say volumes about what’s happened,” Griffin said.

UTRGV has maintained that the professor turnover was as a result of losing agreements with two partnering hospitals.

The university also submitted a response on behalf of two representatives of the medical school’s Student Government Association, who defended the institution and challenged the assertion that concern even existed at all.

Griffin and others disagree.

In this undated photo, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine campus in Harlingen is seen. (David Pike | UTRGV)

PEDIATRIC PROBLEMS

Around August 2024, Griffin said she was called into a meeting that she believed was about undertaking more work to accommodate for having fewer pediatric professors; however, she was instead told her contract would no longer be renewed for the following school year.

“They said I wasn’t needed anymore and that pediatrics was a failed experiment and that it was unnecessary to have pediatric faculty to teach and have a medical school,” Griffin said.

She couldn’t believe that her contract was being terminated after no indication from the institution or any poor performance reviews.

All they communicated to her was that she was being let go due to budgetary reasons, Griffin said.

With only four pediatric professors remaining, Griffin was concerned about how the school would deal with the additional workload of her courses and who would be teaching them.

While at UTRGV Griffin taught a variety of pediatric courses including acute pediatric illnesses, prevention classes, advocacy courses and other similar classes.

After filing grievances and concerns about who would be teaching her classes, Griffin said she was told that students could learn everything online.

She now fears that if the medical school relies solely on online instruction they would be putting their students at a disadvantage by not allowing professors to help provide insight on children’s health as its changing as well as new research.

“They don’t get what every other medical school in the country has,” Griffin said, adding that learning only from a textbook is not excellent learning. “They may be able to pass the test but when they get into the hospital, when they get into the clinics what they will not have been asked to use is critical thinking skill and diagnostic skills that the rest of the county is teaching those students. So it’s a huge loss.”

Additionally, Griffin raised concerns about how the school would keep its accreditation without pediatric professors to teach the courses.

She recalled being told that the school just needed to meet a certain criteria to keep the LCME accreditation.

“We went from dreaming up an excellent school of medicine with all the departments to leadership that does not think that you have to have a pediatrics department,” Griffin said disappointedly.

The UTRGV sign on the Brownsville Campus is seen near the Student Union. (Courtesy of UTRGV)

THE ‘FAILED EXPERIMENT’

If one were to ask Griffin about whether pediatrics proved a worthwhile enough healthcare endeavor to provide face-to-face, hands-on instruction, she would say of course.

But she believes that wasn’t the case at the medical school, and expressed concern in hearing that the university referred to the pediatric department as a “failed experiment.”

The department would frequently pitch ideas as part of their strategic plan to help it grow and continue to address community health needs, to no avail.

In another instance, a children’s environmental health specialist who wanted to start a special unit that aligned with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to manage and surveil the environmental toxins that the children at the border were being exposed to.

The unit did not end up happening due to the institution not wanting to “support what it would take to put that together.”

There was another instance in which they had suggested having a foster care clinic to help treat the foster children in the Valley. They would otherwise have to go to Corpus Christi to get an evaluation.

According to Griffin the finance department would not approve of hiring a social worker to be a part of a clinic.

“There is so many other things that we recommended that would raise more funds and serve a critical need for the children in the Valley,” Griffin said.

According to Griffin, pediatrics wasn’t the only department affected. She said professors in obstetrics and gynecology, which cover maternal health, were also either let go or left.

“You went from an extremely robust (OB) residency program with lots of faculty, lots of residents to a handful,” Griffin said. “They decide that maternal health and child health is not a critical part of teaching and I would say that is the most critical need in the Valley, has been to support women and children, especially women and children in poverty.”

By the time she left the school had already lost 30% of its faculty.

“We’ve lost an incredible talent that we put together in 2015 and 2016, this committed faculty but over time it got and I would say it got markedly worse in the last couple years,” she said. “They didn’t care. They wouldn’t listen to recommendations and the administration didn’t really value what the pediatricians were bringing.”

(Courtesy: StockSnap from Pixabay)

UTRGV RESPONDS

Although former faculty have shared concerns about the school of medicine’s turnover rate and how it would affect students, the university has reassured that the faculty model has not “disappeared” but “shifted.”

In a statement from Melissa Vasquez, interim director of news and media relations, she said Friday that the institution is currently meeting LCME standards by relying on 50 community pediatricians and 16 community OB-GYNs, who teach in Valley clinics and hospitals.

The school is currently working on a joint pediatric residency in collaboration with Driscoll Children’s Hospital, she added.

“More than 20 Driscoll physicians now hold UTRGV faculty appointments, and joint pediatric residency is planned,” Vasquez said.

UTRGV also maintained that the medical school remains “firmly committed to full-spectrum training in maternal and child health while stewarding public resources responsibly.”

Vasquez pointed to clinical training being intact and that “every medical student” competes rotations in pediatrics and OB-GYN.

She further pointed to 100% of students meeting all clinical milestones as of February, with 96% reporting “ample patient access and faculty supervision.”

However, Vasquez did not address the allegations Griffin made about being told that pediatrics was a failed experiment and that her contract termination was due to budgetary reasons rather than losing two partnering hospitals, as previously asserted by the university.

“Budget decisions are mission‑driven,” Vasquez said. ”Staffing adjustments — whether non‑renewal of individual contracts or realignment of departments or clinical services — balance fiscal responsibility with the need to train physicians, deliver quality care, and advance research.”

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