Only two out of this fall's first year class of 128 med students are black -- a shocking reminder that the University of Florida College of Medicine has discarded the last remnants of affirmative action.

For black students.

For the offspring of powerful, well-connected money mongers, the med school will still overlook a few nettlesome requirements and push aside more qualified applicants.

This particular brand of affirmative action works best if Daddy controls three 527 political slush funds laden with cash. And it's nice to have recommendations from the governor and the president of the state Senate, both mailed straight to the university president.

In 2008, then Senate President Ken Pruitt suggested that the son of Republican bag man Alan Mendelsohn just happened to have ``impeccable morals, proven leadership and professional discipline, and a fervent commitment to succeeding as a physician.''

DIDN'T TAKE TEST

What Benjamin Mendelsohn didn't have, among his attributes, were results from the Medical College Admissions Test. Which he had not taken. And he seemed to have missed a crucial application deadline, members of the med school selection committee told the Gainesville Sun.

The committee, sorting through 2,783 applications for 135 slots, found Mendelsohn's wanting. And said no. Yet he was admitted.

Who says affirmative action is dead? One qualifies for this special admission policy when your father controls millions of dollars of Tallahassee influence money. Few had grasped just how much political cash Alan Mendelsohn commanded until the Hollywood ophthalmologist was busted last month by the FBI on charges he had scammed his donors out of more than a million bucks.

The arrest reminded the media about the ruckus last year at the University of Florida over Mendelsohn's son's unlikely acceptance into med school. It was never quite clear whether the admission decision came from University President Bernie Machen or from med school Dean Bruce Kone (who graduated from the same Fort Lauderdale prep school as Ben Mendelsohn.) But Kone, who was at war with Machen over a number of issues, has since been forced out. His $517,000 settlement precludes either side from public comment.

`VIRTUAL EXCLUSION'

A year later, the Mendelsohn admission still bothers Tallahassee cardiologist Edward Holifield, who noticed that the University of Florida College of Medicine had embraced an influence peddler's son, despite his questionable qualifications, but could only find two slots in this year's class for black applicants. ``Just 1.56 percent of the class, in a state that's 15 percent black. That's virtual exclusion,'' said Dr. Holifield, a member of the Leon County Health Advisory Board. Nationally, incoming blacks represent more than seven percent of first-year med students.

But Holifield knew there was only one reason why the media was suddenly interested. ``If it wasn't for Mendelsohn, nobody would be paying any attention to this situation,'' he said.

``Just two black students. That's shocking for a state like Florida,'' said psychiatric professor Lewis Baxter, an outspoken critic of the med school's good ol' boy policies.

``We have plenty of affirmative action here,'' Dr. Baxter said acidly. ``It just not about race or gender.''

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