So, cancel culture comes to cardiology, as UPMC punishes Dr. Norman C. Wang for publishing reasoned criticism of preferential admissions policies (See related story). Kudos to the Department of Education and the AAUP for coming to the defense of academic freedom.

If anything should have earned a pink slip, it is the outrageous insult directed at Wang by Kathryn L. Berlacher (director of the UPMC cardiology fellowship program), to wit: “… any educational environment in which you partake is inherently unsafe, increasing our learners’ risk for undue bias and harm.”

This case is emblematic of the sick intolerance that has seeped into academe. I guess it was too much to hope that Pitt would be immune.

Allan Walstad

Pitt–Johnstown, associate professor of Physics (emeritus)