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
The National Council Against Health Fraud (NCAHF) finds it remarkable that the chiropractic profession has existed for a century without having made a single notable contribution to the world's body of knowledge in the health sciences.
If the NCAHF believes this, they don't know medical history. It isn't remarkable at all, but just the normal human experience. Docs used bloodletting and purging from ancient times until early modern times with making any notable advances. It is in the nature of humanity as to easily deceive yourself into thinking you know a lot more about medicine than you do. The surprising thing is that there are any scientific advances in medicine. There was a tremendous period of medical advance, starting with the germ theory and mostly ending about 35 years ago. Right now we have a US government that funds unproven chiropractic treatment for our veterans while having an army of FDA bureaucrats whose job it is to stop new treatments from getting into the marketplace. (I don't believe there is much good science in the phase III drug testing, it is more a matter of gaming the government system, but that is for another thread.)
One of the basic problem the hundreds of outraged protesting professors at FSU have with this nightmare is that chiropractic training does not rely on the scierntific method.
scierntific = scientific
Absolutely.
My daughter had a 27-degree scoliosis that came on rapidly. While the surgeon hovered, I took her to a highly recommended chiropractor, but neither she nor I could tolerate having her spine jerked around. Then I took her to a certified teacher of the Alexander Technique three times a week for lessons. In three months, her spine went from a 27- to an 8-degree curve, out of the danger zone. It's stayed that straight for decades now.
Back in 1926, 19 physicians including the president of the British Medical Association petitioned to include the Alexander Technique as part of med school curriculum in England. Sadly it came to naught. Alexander lessons involve zero manipulation, no massage or hypnoisis or anything else. They are lessons in how to use yourself well.
My father was a chiropractor. The Medical profession doesn't like it, cause it cuts in on their $$$$$$$'s
Boy, they certainly have worked for me over the years! Maybe not in all instances, but when you have your neck or back "out" there's nothing like them for a quick fix. Also I've found, at least the ones I've been to, that if it's something they feel may be out of their purview they'll recommend other medical alternatives. It never seems to be the Chiropractors vs the MD's, but rather the other way around.
bump
Alexander Technique is EXCELLENT and can be applied to a lot of movement situations in life.
No. Some schools are probably better than others. But basically, my idea of a good chiropractor is one who has a subtle and sophisticated sense of the body and knows how primitive basic chiropractic is, knows his limits, knows when to stop before damaging patients. Most are not smart about these things, IMO
Hmmmmmmmm......
Best post of the whole bunch! And you basically told a tale similar to mine...thank goodness for my chiropracter. Otherwise, it would have been back surgery to the tune of probably $15K...then probably ANOTHER surgery a few years later (back surgeries seem to NEVER end).
Also, doubters ought to check out the number of people who get sicker or die while in a hospital; not to mention the dependence on prescription drugs.
There ARE good chiropracters and not so good ones...luckily, I found a great one.
hehehehehehe
This is, I must remind you, a family website.
You know the Alexander Technique? I'm delighted! You've had lessons? You know teachers?
I went to Alexander teacher's school in San Francisco for three years and am certified to teach. I'd like to move to FL to teach, but ironically, FL hassles Alexander teachers to a certain extent. This could work to the advantage of certified teachers, as there are plenty of people claiming to teach who don't have a clue.
LOL!!!!
I've read books but never had the official instruction. It did wonders for my golf class.
You don't know of what you speak. What do YOU think is the essential principle or precept of homeopathy? Now connect that principle with any reality...
See my dot.sig.
ping
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