Under the general topic of "Accreditation and the Public Interest" I have been asked to direct my comments to the problems involved in maintaining appropriate standards for medical education while substantially increasing the number and proportion of medical students from minority groups. I am of the opinion that the title of my topic does severe injustice to the question in that it represents a preconceived bias on the part of the individuals who assigned it and those who concur with it. This bias evidences itself from two assumptions which are to be made from the title: (1) that the standards under which we now operate are absolute, should be maintained, and should not be in any way modified; (2) that the term minority immediately confers upon the individual so blessed the specter of inferiority. However, I submit that not only are our present standards of excellence by no means absolute,