FSU: Chiropractor school resistance stiffens
Posted on Fri, Jan. 14, 2005
FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY
Chiropractor school resistance stiffens
An FSU faculty committee voted unanimously to oppose any new program without input from the teaching staff.
BY BRENT KALLESTAD
Associated Press
TALLAHASSEE - Under growing objections from faculty, Florida State's trustees are expected to send to the Legislature today a proposal for a chiropractic school at the university to the Board of Governors for a deciding vote later this month.
Not all professors are opposed to the school, but most are irked that the faculty has been left out of the process for creating it.
The university is already advertising for a dean for the program, which has yet to be vetted with its professors.
In an unusual meeting Thursday, about 150 faculty members gathered a few feet from president T.K. Wetherell's office with questions for the administration about their role, limited thus far, in the decision-making process.
Provost Larry Abele, straddling a formal position of neutrality, presented some pluses and minuses of the school going ahead with the chiropractic program foisted on them by Florida State alumni in the Legislature, one a chiropractor.
Earlier this week, that committee voted 22-0 to oppose any new program without faculty input.
''Besides being an academic issue for the faculty, it is an emotional issue for the faculty,'' said Lee Hinkle, vice president for university relations. ``We have deep respect for the fact that FSU has a strong faculty governance program.''
Hinkle said the faculty will be involved if the program is approved Jan. 27 by the Board of Governors.
''If they vote to allow the program, we will allow our faculty an opportunity to have input on program development,'' she said. ``If the faculty comes back with a recommendation against it, we will take that to our Board of Trustees.''
Some of the responses Thursday from faculty supporting an open mind about a chiropractic school drew support as well from the audience.
One speaker, Bruce Bowman, a former Navy nuclear engineer, said chiropractors have helped him deal with back injuries.
Dr. Ray Bellamy, a veteran orthopedic surgeon and associate with the university's medical school staff, said Thursday the chiropractic proposal is all about politics.
Bellamy was hosting Dr. Bill Kinsinger from Oklahoma City on Thursday. Kinsinger said he's spent the last 15 years investigating chiropractic medicine.
''Academic integrity should not be for sale,'' Kinsinger said.
FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY
Chiropractor school resistance stiffens
An FSU faculty committee voted unanimously to oppose any new program without input from the teaching staff.
BY BRENT KALLESTAD
Associated Press
TALLAHASSEE - Under growing objections from faculty, Florida State's trustees are expected to send to the Legislature today a proposal for a chiropractic school at the university to the Board of Governors for a deciding vote later this month.
Not all professors are opposed to the school, but most are irked that the faculty has been left out of the process for creating it.
The university is already advertising for a dean for the program, which has yet to be vetted with its professors.
In an unusual meeting Thursday, about 150 faculty members gathered a few feet from president T.K. Wetherell's office with questions for the administration about their role, limited thus far, in the decision-making process.
Provost Larry Abele, straddling a formal position of neutrality, presented some pluses and minuses of the school going ahead with the chiropractic program foisted on them by Florida State alumni in the Legislature, one a chiropractor.
Earlier this week, that committee voted 22-0 to oppose any new program without faculty input.
''Besides being an academic issue for the faculty, it is an emotional issue for the faculty,'' said Lee Hinkle, vice president for university relations. ``We have deep respect for the fact that FSU has a strong faculty governance program.''
Hinkle said the faculty will be involved if the program is approved Jan. 27 by the Board of Governors.
''If they vote to allow the program, we will allow our faculty an opportunity to have input on program development,'' she said. ``If the faculty comes back with a recommendation against it, we will take that to our Board of Trustees.''
Some of the responses Thursday from faculty supporting an open mind about a chiropractic school drew support as well from the audience.
One speaker, Bruce Bowman, a former Navy nuclear engineer, said chiropractors have helped him deal with back injuries.
Dr. Ray Bellamy, a veteran orthopedic surgeon and associate with the university's medical school staff, said Thursday the chiropractic proposal is all about politics.
Bellamy was hosting Dr. Bill Kinsinger from Oklahoma City on Thursday. Kinsinger said he's spent the last 15 years investigating chiropractic medicine.
''Academic integrity should not be for sale,'' Kinsinger said.
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