Posted on 01/01/2005 7:13:21 AM PST by aculeus
Some threaten to resign over the proposed school.
A growing number of professors in the Florida State University College of Medicine are saying they will resign if FSU administrators continue to pursue a proposed chiropractic school.
"I would no longer wish to volunteer my teaching energies to FSU medical school, should it encompass a school of chiropractic," wrote Dr. Ian Rogers, an assistant professor at FSU's Pensacola campus, in a Dec. 15 e-mail. "This is plainly ludicrous!!!!"
The threatened resignations - at least seven to date, all from assistant professors who work part time - reflect a belief among many in the medical establishment that chiropractic is a "pseudo-science" that leads to unnecessary and sometimes harmful treatments. Professors are even circulating a parody map of campus that places a fictional Bigfoot Institute, School of Astrology and Crop Circle Simulation Laboratory near a future chiropractic school.
But the professors' stance has a political aim, too.
Opposition is clearly mounting as the chiropractic school heads for crucial votes in January before the FSU board of trustees and the state Board of Governors.
In fact, the school is now seen as a test case for the fledgling Board of Governors, which critics have accused of kowtowing to Gov. Jeb Bush and the Legislature on the higher education issues it is supposed to oversee.
FSU was closed for the holidays Tuesday. FSU president T.K. Wetherell, provost Larry Abele and John Thrasher, chairman of the FSU board of trustees, could not be reached for comment.
But Sen. Dennis Jones, the Treasure Island Republican who spearheaded legislative support for the school in the spring, said the professors were "overreacting."
He accused anti-chiropractic groups from outside the state of stirring faculty opposition at FSU.
"If they resign, so be it," said Jones, a chiropractor himself. The instructors don't deserve to teach at FSU, he said, "if they're putting their credentials with people known for promoting professional bigotry."
The Legislature appropriated $9-million annually for the chiropractic school, which was pushed by Jones and then-Senate President Jim King, R-Jacksonville, an FSU graduate. It would be the only school of its kind in the country.
As supporters envision it, more than 100 new faculty members would train legions of chiropractors, with a special emphasis on Hispanic and African-American students. The school would also draw lucrative federal grants in alternative medicine.
Planning began years ago, but criticism didn't ramp up until after the legislative session.
Some opponents see the school as an end run around the Board of Governors, which oversees the state's 11 universities but has yet to consider the chiropractic school. Last week, a group headed by former university system chancellor E.T. York filed a lawsuit against the board, accusing it of failing to flex its constitutionally granted muscle and pointing to the chiropractic school as a prime example.
But some FSU faculty members are upset, too, fearing the school will shatter FSU's academic reputation. The list of critics include FSU's two Nobel laureates - Robert Schreiffer, a physicist, and Harold Walter Kroto, a chemist - and Robert Holton, the chemistry professor who developed the cancer-fighting drug Taxol, which has brought FSU tens of millions of dollars in royalties.
In recent weeks, more than 500 faculty members have signed petitions against the chiropractic school, including about 70 in the medical college, said Dr. Raymond Bellamy, an assistant professor who is leading the charge against the proposal. The medical college has more than 100 faculty members.
Some of them say they're willing to do more than sign a petition.
"I teach wonderful medical students from Florida State University here in Orlando," Dr. James W. Louttit wrote in an e-mail to Bellamy, who shared it with the St. Petersburg Times. "If they decide to start a chiropractic school I would no longer be able to support this program."
"It should come as no surprise that no major medical institution in this country, public or private, has embraced chiropractic medicine," wrote Dr. Henry Ho, a Winter Park physician and FSU assistant professor, in another e-mail. "If Florida State University were to do so, its fledgling attempt for credibility as a medical institution of stature would be severely jeopardized."
The situation at FSU isn't the first time chiropractors have sought to tie themselves to an established university.
In the late 1990s, faculty at York University in Toronto - one of Canada's largest schools - considered plans to affiliate with Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College. The plan would have brought York millions of dollars in new facilities and donations and given the chiropractic school academic credibility.
After a bitter, years-long fight, York faculty narrowly vetoed the plan in 2001.
At FSU, faculty have not officially voiced their concerns about the chiropractic school. Bellamy said they fear retaliation from lawmakers if they do.
"Everybody wants somebody else to kill it," he said.
Ron Matus can be reached at 727 893-8873 or
matus@sptimes.com
© Copyright 2003 St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved
Thank you for some facts and references in this anecdote filled rant thread.
There is nothing wrong with having a chiropractic college.
There is one close by me and the students are nice, serious and pay good money to learn.
Now in California, they have all but cut them off from any insurance by the government and the private ones rarely cover that as well, so many are starving.
In general, they help, they don't break the skin or drug and people survive them.
Can't say the same for the protesting professors.
And your point is?
It has been over three years and her health has improved dramatically. We have no doubt she would be in a wheelchair today if she hadn't taken the step to get help before it was too late, or the surgeons started cutting on her spine.
Chiropractic can't cure everything. But is sure can help in a lot of cases, and is drug-free.
That was a quoted description, not mine, but I did throw gasoline on it.
I did break my regular doctor up, though..he asked how a minor surgery went, and how I liked the surgeon.
Well, he was like most surgeons...a HUMBLE man!..."
I had an ankle injury that bothered me for ten years. Visits to conventional doctor were always "nothing much you can do, ankles take time to heal." I picked up my wife from an appointment with a chiropractor and I mentioned to the Dr. about my nuisance ankle problem. She scheduled 3 appointments. After the second one she said the ankle would be fine without the third appt. She was correct. In about three days my ankle felt strong as ever.
I think doctors are a funny bunch. They hate chiros because they aren't "real" doctors, yet, look at the course work for chiros and they have far more schooling in the human body than doctors.
BTW, I once had a serious injury from a dirt bik racing accident. I had a 30 degree rotation of the lower spine. Every "doctor" out there wanted to do surgery. Quacks. The chiro did x-rays, felt around, and rotated it all back into position instantly. Six months of therapy and my back was perfect. No long term problems, no surgery. The total cost was less than $500 out of pocket.
Doctors just hate the cheaper and more effective competition.
I think the confusion comes from the fact that in calif., osteopathic physicians can call themselves MDs. The notion that chiropractors in California have to go to an allopathic medical school first is completely absurd.
BTW, Sen. Dennis Jones (chiro fla. state senator) is a RINO scum who opposed the cap on non-economic damages in medical liability cases. A quack who is also a corrupt politician is just too much.
plenty of good info on chiropractors at www.quackwatch.com
I still don't get your point. You seem to be accusing me of being a massage therapist. Or something.
If by "you" you mean me, aculeus, I suggest you read my #12.
In 1987 I injured my back at the age of 30. After 6-7 weeks of "therapy" and pain killers that did not work, I finally saw a back cracker. I took my first deep breath after all that time. I'm convinced that Dr. Bleser (what a name!) of Cincinnati saved my life.
Couldn't agree more Diana and I'm quite suprised at the anti-Chiro sentiment around here. The ration of good and bad in the chiropractic profession is likely no different than the number of shysters and quack MDs.
When I started experiencing problems I knew nothing about chiropractors and the connection of the spine to good health. Like most people I believed they were not legitimate.
My problems started with minor pain and grinding in the neck and mid back and ignored it. Within a year I started having very serious paninc attacks. I went to at least five differnt MDs and every one of them wanted to prescribe pain medication and anti depressants, because they believed my symptoms were the result of depression. I kept trying to explaim my physical symptoms, and that I was certainly depressed because I did not feel well and was in pain everyday. I had read quite a bit about anti-depresants and never would fill the prescritions.
After a year of suffering a friend of mine recommended a chiro. I blew him off, but the friend then pre-paid a visit for me, which I still ignored for another two months. Finally, I was feeling so bad one day I was ready to try anything. I made the appointment and it turned out to be one of the best decisions of my life.
The first visit was like a religious experience; like someone breaking a pain of glass with a hammer; everything, tension, back pain, neck pain, chest pain, just left my body. It took a couple months of frequent visits, but I now only see him when I need too, as I have learned to pay attention to what my body is telling me. I have not had a panic attack since the first visit ten years ago.
If it were not for my Chiro, I would be on pain kilers and antidepressants, or maybe dead. My entire life I always considered myself well grounded and never one to think about suicide, but after a year of misery I was starting to understand how one could consider it.
The only answer the MDs could provide was anit-depresants and pain killers. They never wanted to consider the source of my problems and ignored what I was trying to tell them.
sui
When we lived in another city, the daughter of a friend was a physical therapist; she would have me lie on my back and drop my leg to the side of the bed; she would "do something" to it, which I never figured out, but within minutes I had NO PAIN. None.
I was so sorry when we moved.
But I am delighted to hear about BC/BS MA. My husband's company just switched to them today!
"At one time, long ago, "modern" medicine opened the human body without sterilized equipment and in less than sanitary environments. At one time, "modern" medicine bled people with leaches as treatments for diseases. At one time, "modern" medicine thought it reasonable to perform lobotomies on mental patients. "
Some still do. I find it laughable that do medical doctors think they are Gods. In fact, ask a doctor if a PhD should be allowed to be called "doctor", most will say no. Even funnier are lawyers who use the silly title "esquire", meaning gentleman, in a vain attempt to give lawyers a title of nobility. They must have hated the founding fathers when they prohibited titles of nobility in the Constitution.
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