College of Medicine Faces Student Backlash from Instagram Post and Comment
Belmont’s College of Medicine sparked student backlash when it posted art generated by artificial intelligence depicting its new community houses on its Instagram page.
It was posted on Oct. 22 and was taken down within a day.
One student, @epistaxis.17, commented, “Please tell me this wasn’t made with AI.” The College of Medicine’s Instagram account, @fristmed, replied to the comment with “Let’s make a deal: We won’t ask who wrote y’all’s personal statements if you don’t ask who made our graphics.”
Two College of Medicine faculty members, Dr. Caleb Marsh and Dr. Jerome Hill, liked the college’s reply.
Student response to the college’s comment was mainly outrage.
"Such a silly way to defend themselves when being accused of using AI," said one student. "You could have joked about it in many other ways, but to defend yourself with a joke at the expense of your students, your prospective students, is very counterintuitive to me."
This student asked to be anonymous because he doesn’t want criticism of a graduate school to appear in the background checks used by the other graduate schools he plans to apply to
Belmont acknowledged the situation in a statement to the Vision.
“The Frist College of Medicine recently shared a post that included AI art produced by medical students for their internal community Houses, and the usage of AI art received multiple critiques from followers,” said the statement.
“The reply from the College’s Instagram account to one of those critiques was meant to be lighthearted, but it missed the mark. The individual responsible removed the post and apologizes for any offense that was caused,” said the statement.
The individual responsible was not identified by Belmont.
Students found the use of AI to be in poor taste. "You'd think with all those resources and creative individuals behind it, especially being at a liberal arts school, that they could simply find the manpower to put together a Canva post," said the anonymous student.
Junior Nandi Dube said the original post was insulting to hardworking medical students and to student artists on Belmont’s campus.
“It takes a lot of work and a lot of hours of authentic human work to make it into a medical school. And for them to then use AI, and choose the laziest route possible to make art, is kind of a slap in the face to all of the artists on Belmont's campus who are working hard,” said Dube.
“But also, all of the medical students in general across the country that are working insanely hard, crazy hours to make it into medical school,” she said.
Dube and another student pointed out that the college’s comment — "We won’t ask who wrote y’all’s personal statements if you don’t ask who made our graphics" — not only implies that students use AI in their college applications, but also that the university accepts students who use AI.
One student raised concerns about the training FCOM students are receiving, based on the implication that the university accepts the use of AI in applications and how the college handled the situation.
This student also asked for anonymity for the same reason; he doesn’t want criticism of a graduate school to appear in the background checks used by the other graduate schools he plans to apply to.
“If these are the standards that we are accepting students, then what would their education be like? What are they taught in these classes? And what kind of doctors will they become and thus affect other people's lives?” this student said.
Dube and this student disagree with the way the college handled the situation. The college deleted the controversial Instagram post, but did so quietly with no public statement.
“Taking it down was the most appropriate thing they could have done, but they also should have taken accountability for the post. They should have said something like, we apologize for making the AI post in general and then also being inappropriate in the comments,” said Dube.
The second anonymous student said that the lack of public statement concerns him. “By sweeping it under the rug and just taking it down and never speaking of it again, what's stopping you from doing this again in the future and not learning from the – quote unquote – ‘backlash,’ or the criticism?”
The day after the post, the College of Medicine hosted the “House Olympics” on Belmont’s main lawn. And students aren’t against the idea of having this community engagement initiative.
“Having this as... the launch of this program was in poor taste,” said the second anonymous student. “But the concept of it seems very cool.”
The first anonymous student agrees that a student engagement initiative is essential for medical students.
"I think they can use a little socialization. I think they're all very stressed. I think it's a good initiative. And it's also good for doctors to be able to engage in the community," he said.
Written by Olivia Abernathy
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