February 2005

No chiro college for FSU

FEB. 2, 2005 — Ten members of the Florida Board of Governors, which oversees the state’s 11 public universities, voted against the establishment of a chiropractic college at Florida State University. The vote, taken at the board’s monthly meeting on Jan. 27, was 10-3.

The board disapproved the college, saying that construction of the school would not be a good use of the state’s resources. It also stated that the chiropractic college would not be a good “fit” for the university.

The Florida Chiropractic Association (FCA) brought a number of experts to testify in support of the chiropractic college. Among those experts were John Triano, DC, PhD; Ran Swenson, DC, MD, PhD; Alan Adamas, DC, MED; and Louis Sportelli, DC.

Testifying against the school were Ray Bellamy, MD, from the FSU medical school and Bill Kinsinger, MD, who is affiliated with the Quackbusters organization, which takes aim at chiropractic on the Web.

The board considered evidence presented to it from the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation, which predicts a moderate increase in need for chiropractors (108 per year), based on current utilization rates. The FSU program was to graduate up to 380 doctors of chiropractic a year.

According to FCA’s CEO Debbie Brown, the data used by the board was outdated. “They based this [decision] on old, inaccurate information and when FCA brought this to their attention prior to and during the meeting, the BOG chose to ignore and make a decision based on this old information,” she said in a letter to FCA members.

At the current time, FSU does not appear likely to resubmit or pursue the establishment of a chiropractic college.

The controversy over the chiropractic college began in December. A group of FSU medical school staff circulated a petition against the college, stating that chiropractic was “pseudoscience.” Also, the BOG claimed that it had a constitutional right to approve (or disapprove) the university, which had already been funded by the state legislature.

To fight the politics, FCA spent approximately $100,000 in media relations and travel expenses for various experts, said Brown. FCA had been working toward the establishment of the chiropractic college for several years.

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