Chiropractic has for decades achieved an increased appearance of legitimacy, predominantly thru politically lobbying and legislation. By the beginning of the 21st century, university association was a major missing link to that legitimacy. A chiropractor, Dennis Jones, became Majority Leader in the State Senate of Florida, and engineered an act making possible such an affiliation. In 2004, Florida Governor Jeb Bush signed the law authorizing the first chiropractic program at a publicly funded major research university in North America: Florida State University in Tallahassee.
Initial opposition to the program from concerned citizens outside and inside the state made faculty and alumni aware that a chiropractic school would be a threat to the academic and scientific integrity of the university. It was later pointed out that the 2004 legislation had violated the state constitution, which had placed such decisions of university structure under the authority of a separate Board of Governors. During the investigation, the board found that the Florida Chiropractic Association had donated a large sum to the university, money that the organization would later ask to be returned. This led to several meetings and hearings, which in turn led to a rejection of the planned school by the Board of Governors on January 27, 2005.
Chiropractic organizations have made previous attempts at university recognition, all of which have failed, and they are expected to make more attempts in the future.
Chiropractic has for decades achieved an increased appearance of legitimacy predominantly thru political lobbying and legislation. By the beginning of the 21st century, university association was a major missing link to legitimacy. A chiropractor, Dennis Jones, became Senate Majority Leader in the State of Florida and engineered an act making possible such an affiliation. In 2004, Governor Jeb Bush signed the law authorizing the first chiropractic program at a publicly funded, major research university in North America. The school was to be affiliated with Florida State University in Tallahassee.
Initial opposition to the program from concerned citizens outside and inside the state made faculty and alumni aware that a chiropractic school would be a threat to the academic and scientific integrity of the university.
It was later pointed out that the 2004 legislation had violated the state constitution, which places such decisions of university structure under the authority of a separate Board of Governors. During the investigation, the board found that the Florida Chiropractic Association had donated a large sum to the university, money that the organization would later ask to be returned. This led to several meetings and hearings, which in turn led to a rejection of the planned school by the Board of Governors on January 27, 2005.
Chiropractic organizations have made previous attempts at university recognition, all of which have failed, and they are expected to make more attempts in the future.
Florida State Senator Jones envisioned the first university-affiliated chiropractic program at a North American public university at Florida State University. Jones had begun the preliminary discussions in the mid 1990s and by 2000, had arranged for the state legislature to appropriate over half a million dollars to study the feasibility of the program. MGT of America, a contracting/consulting firm, was hired to detail the current state of chiropractic education and to develop data regarding space and costs.
By 2002, FSU, under a new administration led by its president, TK Wetherell, had hired Alan Adams, a chiropractic educator to develop a blueprint for what would become a “Mayo Clinic” of chiropractic. The proposal would require 106 faculty members, require matriculating students to have bachelor’s degrees, and would have students work toward a master’s degree while advancing thru the chiropractic curriculum. A select group of FSU faculty was apprised of the program. Adams led this small group on at least two tours of chiropractic colleges, one in New York and the other in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
In Toronto, the group visited the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College (CMCC). The CMCC, during the prior two decades, had made more than a dozen attempts at university affiliation. The most recent attempt included a $25 million dollar donation to Toronto’s York University. In each of these efforts, including York, when faculties examined the proposed arrangements, interest waned and attempts at affiliation failed. It is not clear if any of the FSU delegation, with the exception of Adams, were aware of CMCC’s failures to obtain university affiliation.
By the winter of 2004, Senator Jones had risen to the post of Majority Leader, and his good friend and fellow republican Jim King was serving as Senate President. They were able to pass a bill out of both houses, authorizing the chiropractic school at FSU, with a nine-million-dollar annual appropriation in perpetuity. The bill passed with little debate and was signed into law by Governor Jeb Bush. The governor had vetoed a similar bill a few years earlier but changed his mind in an effort to mend a feud between the State House and State Senate leaders.
The Florida State Chiropractic Association hosted a celebration in Tallahassee, at which members toasted with champagne while football coach Bobby Bowden signed autographs. It was clear that this would be a monumental step for the chiropractic occupation. Jones was frequently rumored to be the candidate for dean of the program.
Not long after the legislation passed through both houses, local attorney Jann Bellamy wrote an opinion piece in the Tallahassee Democrat that questioned the need and justification for the new program. The article was noticed by a handful of out-of-state chiropractic critics, who until this point had been reluctant to enter into the activities. The members of this group, several of whom were Canadians, were acquainted with the past CMCC efforts and felt that if the facts were made public, the program could be halted. Meanwhile, the Tallahassee Democrat published another article by a former university-system chancellor, ET York. Dr. York was not so much concerned about the merits of the chiropractic industry but rather the manner in which the school had been approved.
Like many states, Florida has a long tradition of legislative meddling in university affairs. During the 1990s, the legislature became frustrated by the statewide universities’ Board of Regents denying of legislative projects such as proposed medical and law schools. In order to demonstrate their power, the lawmakers summarily abolished the Board of Regents and put in place local Boards of Trustees (BOTs) at each of the state’s eleven universities. While this system was in place, the lawmakers approved several new programs, including a medical school at Florida State, a program which will graduate its first class in 2005.
Opponents of the legislature’s power over the universities, including former US Senator Robert Graham, then led a successful initiative petition on the November 2002 ballot that created a new statewide university-system governing body to oversee each of the local BOTs. The measure passed by a vote of 60% in favor, changing the state constitution, so the newly formed Florida Board of Governors (BOG) could not be easily overruled by legislative actions. Governor Bush opposed this move and appointed board members who were felt to be less than independent.
Dr. York’s opinion piece pointed out that when the legislature bypassed the BOG in the 2004 chiropractic bill, it had violated the state’s constitution. He expressed plans to file a lawsuit challenging the law and in essence forcing the BOG to fulfill its constitutionally mandated duties.
It was around this time that the previously mentioned international group of opponents to the school decided to take action. Members of the group included several physicians, a York University professor who had been involved in the CMCC debate, the mother of a victim of chiropractic upper-neck manipulation, and a number of other persons from the US and Canada.
Their first task was to accumulate a list of persons who might have either a particular interest in the proposal or who were in a position to influence decisions regarding the program. They included members of the BOG, the FSU BOT, top FSU administrators, Governor Jeb Bush, medical-student leaders, local physicians, and alumni. With time, the list grew to include others.
Throughout the spring and early summer of 2004, the groups’ activities were confined to writing letters of which the subject was the chiropractic program’s threat to academic integrity. Letters were accompanied by documents detailing the unscientific nature of chiropractic as well as copies of a videotape on vertebral-artery dissection and stroke from chiropractic upper-neck manipulation.
Initially, a few recipients acknowledged the information and gave some hints of support for the opposition. Most responses acknowledged that the attempt to block the school appeared to be too late, and that the arrangement was completed.
In May 2004, the Florida BOG briefly discussed the FSU proposal at a regular meeting and voted 8–5 against becoming involved in the situation. The reputation of the board for being a “weak body” seemed to be confirmed. Yet the legislation that had created the chiropractic school was in direct opposition to the constitutional mandate of the people of Florida.
Then, a member of the opposition received a letter from RE LeMon, Vice Chancellor of the BOG, stating that it was the understanding of the BOG that the chiropractic proposal must come before the board at some point. This was seemingly in conflict with a separate response from the General Counsel of FSU, Betty Steffens, in which she had indicated that the legislature had
already approved the plan, and therefore, it was the understanding of the university that the program would be implemented without any further review.
In June 2004, one of the group’s leaders determined that a “position paper” needed to be prepared to summarize the points made by the growing opposition. A number of contributors with varying backgrounds were called upon to assist in the preparation of this document, and in August of that year, the first copies of the report were printed. The report was titled, “Preserving Academic Scientific Excellence at Florida State University.” By Labor Day, close to one hundred copies of the document had been distributed to the target audience, to major newspapers in Florida, and to the two chiropractors in the Florida State Senate.
It is not known how many of these reports were given much consideration. But in November 2004, Raymond Bellamy, a local orthopedic surgeon, contacted the authors of the document for help in understanding the issues. He volunteered to distribute material to the local medical and FSU academic communities.
Dr. Bellamy is an FSU alumnus with a long family history of FSU associations. Bellamy obtained hundreds of signatures on petitions expressing opposition to the chiropractic school. Signatories included physicians, FSU professors from almost every academic discipline, and two local Nobel Laureates.
A few weeks prior to Bellamy’s initiative, the BOG, in November 2004, approved a motion requiring the FSU administration to submit its proposal for the chiropractic program to the BOG prior to implementation. The BOG seemed to be turning against establishment of the chiropractic school.
In late November, the media began to show interest. Dr. Bellamy assumed leadership of the program’s opposition, and an FSU professor of chemistry issued a “revised FSU campus map” in which many existing buildings had been renamed with titles such as the Bigfoot Institute and Crop Circle Simulation Laboratory.
At about this same time, Dr. Bellamy got assurance from the chairman of the FSU BOT, John Thrasher, that he or one of his representatives would be given an opportunity to make the case against the school at the Boards’ January 14, 2005, meeting.
Plans were made to offer an open seminar on the proposed program. It would be cosponsored by the Tallahassee Scientific Society and the local medical society. The event was scheduled to take place off campus on the evening of the 13th of January, in order to immediately precede the BOT meeting. The opposition was invited to make the case against the school, and an effort was made to schedule representatives from both the chiropractic community as well as the FSU administration to make their own cases. Chiropractic leaders from around the state and even the president of the American Chiropractic Association were invited to participate. None accepted the invitation. A similar lack of enthusiasm was received from the FSU leadership.
On December 8, an unsigned report was issued by the FSU administration and titled “A Proposal to the Florida Board of Governors for Establishing the Doctor of Chiropractic Program in the Florida State University College of Complementary and Integrative Health.” The report, over 100 pages in length, was written to convince the BOG that the program was well thought out and deserving of acceptance. The opposition group prepared a rebuttal document.
It had been decided that although the FSU report was unsigned, it should be addressed as originating from the president, and be referred to as the Wetherell Report. A reply to the Wetherell report was written, and by the first of the year, dozens of copies of the document had been distributed to a similar group that had been recipients of the previous mailings.
During the first week in January, Dr. Bellamy received word that the FSU Graduate Policy Committee (GPC) had agreed to meet on Monday, January 10, to consider the chiropractic proposal. The GPC is a committee of 22 FSU faculty members empowered to approve all doctoral-level programs. They had been left out of any of the previous discussions by the FSU administration. The chairman of the committee, Dr. George Bates, also agreed to sponsor a faculty forum on the afternoon of January 13th, the day prior to the BOT meeting.
In the days leading up to the BOT meeting, media interest increased. It was not unusual to have five or more Florida papers reporting on the situation daily. National publications such as Science, Time, and the Chronicle for Higher Education all published stories on the affair.
When the GPC met on January 10, it was made clear that it had been given almost no meaningful information or adequate time to review the proposal and voted unanimously that it could not endorse the program without further detailed review. The GPC estimated their review might take as long as two years.
The GPC noted that the FSU leadership had bypassed the normal approval process for a doctoral-level program, and that FSU had advertised for a dean in November of 2004.
After remaining relatively silent during the preceding few months, the chiropractic leaders then became more active. They held a press conference in Tallahassee on January 12, bringing in chiropractors holding PhD degrees from as far away as New York City and Toronto.
Dr. Bellamy held his own press conference prior to a faculty forum on the morning of the 13th, prior to the Board of Trustees meeting. The faculty forum attendance was estimated at around 200. FSU Provost Larry Abele opened the program and argued that he was a neutral official; however, his statements led many to believe he favored the program. Approximately equal numbers of individuals were given a few minutes to speak addressing the arguments both for and against the school. Proponents relied heavily on testimonials to promote the value of chiropractic. Drs. Bellamy and Bill Kinsinger of Oklahoma City, as well as a number of skeptical FSU faculty members, spoke out against the program, arguing that the unscientific nature of chiropractic philosophy did not merit university recognition.
Dr. Bellamy and his colleagues had also purchased a full-page ad in the Tallahassee Democrat, featuring a statement opposing the program. The statement was accompanied by the signatures of the two FSU Nobel Laureates and more than 25 FSU scholars. No medical doctors were included in the list.
The BOT meeting on the afternoon of the 14th was attended by a large contingent of the press as well as a maximum-capacity crowd. Almost two hours into the meeting, the chiropractic program was discussed. FSU Provost Larry Abele again introduced the subject. Public comments were heard from the chiropractic representatives as well as a few of the opposition including both Dr. Bellamy and attorney Jann Bellamy. After debate among the board members, a motion was passed that in essence stated that the BOT was sending the proposal on to the BOG without any opinion. In the words of Ray Bellamy, they “chickened out.”
While many were disappointed in the vote, they were not totally surprised. All knew that it was unlikely that the BOT would approve the school but also were aware that the BOT was concerned about legislative retribution and might take a neutral stand.
In the course of the next two weeks, the chiropractors intensified efforts to demonstrate that their occupation was deserving of legitimacy. They also declared that the numbers of practicing chiropractors in the state of Florida had been overstated and that there was truly a need for the new school.
Florida BOG Chairman Carolyn Roberts had stated that her committee was only interested in the “need” and the “fit” of the chiropractic program at FSU, not the scientific status of the occupation. Those in opposition had spent months detailing the threat to the academic integrity of the university that the chiropractic school posed, but they would be prohibited from raising these points at the BOG meeting. Their prepared three-minute speeches would have to conform to Roberts’s wishes.
Those arriving on the University of Florida campus on the 27th found a large room bustling with activity. The BOG members had arrived early and were seated at tables that had been arranged in a large square. There was again a large media presence with 3 or 4 television cameras. The room accommodated 150 or so and was full by the time the meeting began at around 10:30 a.m. Prior to this, Dr. Bellamy had presented each BOG member with copies of some of the strongest recent newspaper editorials, as well as copies of the full-page ad with the signatures of the Nobel Laureates and other academics.
The FSU issue was the first item on the agenda. Two weeks earlier, the BOT had placed the item last on the agenda and many had worried that the same would happen that day. Roberts opened the meeting by laying out the ground rules for the discussion of the chiropractic program. She again emphasized that it was her desire to keep any discussion centered on the “need” and “fit” of the program at FSU.
The first speaker was the attorney for the BOG, who first detailed the constitutional role of the board and then answered a few questions. He confirmed that the board had the power to reject or accept the proposal. Next, RE LeMon, the Vice Chancellor for the BOG, gave a brief history of the role that the BOG had taken to date regarding the FSU proposal.
The third speaker was FSU Provost Lawrence Abele. Dr. Abele was responsible for the development of the program. When he introduced the subject at the January 13th faculty forum, he indicated that he was impartial as to whether or not the program should be implemented. The remarks at the BOG meeting led most to believe that he was in fact supportive of the program. He pointed to the Flexner Report of 1910 and stated that chiropractic was at a similar point in its evolution to that of conventional medicine prior to the changes brought about by Flexner. In the previous months, he had made it clear that if the program were accepted, it would distance itself from the common unscientific viewpoints associated with chiropractic. (Many were skeptical that this could be accomplished.) He concluded his remarks stating that “subluxation” was a commonly used medical term and that its definition was somewhat subject to debate. Many found the statement to be misleading.
Several BOG members asked Abele why he had advertised for a dean the previous November without knowing if the program would be approved. He indicated that they wanted to determine if there would be qualified applicants and did not intend anything more. The mood of the board was not happy.
The final words prior to public comment came from FSU President TK Wetherell.
Just a few days earlier, a local newspaper had published quotes from Wetherell taken from e-mail correspondence from the fall of 2004. In these notes, he had stated that the BOG would not be able to stop the program, and he savored the opportunity to watch as the BOG attempted to flex its muscle. On that day, however, Wetherell appeared more subdued. He indicated that he had nothing but respect for the board and would dutifully submit to their ruling. One member asked him about a statement he had made indicating that he would file suit against the BOG if it got in the way of the school. His response was that he would take no such action.
The initial speaker in the period for public comments was a chiropractor from Niceville, Florida. He appeared to be around thirty years old. He was accompanied to the microphone by two females of similar age. One of the women was apparently a professor at the new Palmer College of Chiropractic Florida in Port Orange. The three represented the Florida Chiropractic Society. The leader spoke forcefully against the FSU proposal, while his two colleagues nodded their heads in approval.
To understand this unanticipated incident, it is necessary to recognize the “civil war” in chiropractic. The two factions are the “mixers” and the “straights.” The former are represented by the American Chiropractic Association, which in recent decades has presented a more mainstream position. Their philosophy is still indistinguishable from that of BJ Palmer in that they believe that the key to optimum health is attainable only with a “well-adjusted” spinal column. The latter are represented by the International Chiropractic Association, which has been more reluctant to let go of any of their past claims and methods including the mythical subluxation. The Florida Chiropractic Association is aligned with the ACA, while the Florida Chiropractic Society is aligned with the ICA. The FCA had been behind the FSU program from the beginning and had spent over $100,000 in the weeks leading up to the BOG meeting in hopes of rescuing the dying program. All the while, the FCS membership had become increasingly disturbed by the statements coming out of FSU, such as the fact that subluxation philosophy would not be part of the curriculum. The FCS openly opposed to any effort to make chiropractic more scientific. Lastly, they took offense at the term medicine being used as a descriptor of the chiropractic program.
The comments from the FCS members seemed to cement the opposition opinions. There followed five or six chiropractic proponents, several from out of state, at least one of whom was prominent in the national chiropractic leadership. They attempted to convince wavering BOG members that the school was an opportunity not only for FSU but for the state to become the leader in chiropractic research. The final two public comments came from Drs. Bellamy and Kinsinger, who were the only two non-chiropractors to speak in opposition to the program.
At that point, the board discussed the matter openly. All the members had something to say and most of them indicated dissatisfaction with the proposal and, in particular, the politics behind its origins. Even the three members who ultimately voted in favor of the program indicated displeasure at the sequence of events that had led to this situation.
The motion to reject the school was passed by a vote of 10 to 3. Within two hours, Provost Abele instructed his secretary in Tallahassee to notify all those involved in the program to cease all activity.
Alan Adams, the chiropractor hired by FSU to prepare the curriculum, was present at the January 13th faculty forum as well as the BOT and BOG meetings and yet did not speak. In the fall of 2004, some media and the FSU administration were informed that Adams had previously represented that he had earned a PhD. In fact, he had not earned such a degree. Some speculated that this revelation kept him on the sidelines.
Another voice absent throughout the debate was that of the Dean of the FSU College of Medicine, Ocie Harris. The word was that Harris had been silenced by the administration and perhaps by some in the legislature. The FSU medical school is the newest in the country and has yet to graduate its first class. Loss of funding might have been possible as retribution for opposing the legislature.
Organized medicine has been silent regarding the hazards of chiropractic since losing the chiropractors’ antitrust lawsuit in the late 1980’s. Medicine’s silence, like that of Dean Harris, tends to lead the public to believe that chiropractic and its practitioners are accepted by the medical establishment much as osteopaths were accepted in previous years. Two weeks after the demise of the chiropractic proposal, the FSU College of Medicine received notification that it had been fully accredited.
In a last-ditch effort to keep the proposal alive, its proponents also pointed to the fact that this program would strive to bring more black and Hispanic students into the occupation than had been possible though private institutions. The point did not have the desired effect.
The story was big news in the state of Florida and made national headlines as well. The aftermath brought more political fallout. Former Senate President Jim King made public comments implying that Governor Jeb Bush should have put pressure on the BOG to look favorably on the proposal. It seems that King had helped Bush get some pet legislation passed, and in return, the governor had been willing to sign off on the FSU proposal. King apparently expected Bush to follow through with political arm twisting.
Several months following the January BOG meeting, it was made public that the FCA has sent an angry letter to the FSU president. In the letter, the organization expressed displeasure at the outcome, and blamed the university for a lack of effort to get the program initiated. The author of the letter demanded that previously donated funds be returned. In his public response, President Wetherell indicated that he would gladly return the money. He voiced concern that the FCA seemed to expect their philanthropy to be a quid pro quo proposition.
It remains to be seen what will happen to the money that had been appropriated by the legislature. The law creating the school is still on the books. At this point, most people who were involved in the matter in Florida believe there is little chance to resurrect the program.
In the end, it came down to the “need” and the “fit.” This gave the BOG an objective criterion with which to evaluate a proposal that had become a national embarrassment. The BOG was able to reject the program without a discussion of the scientific deficiencies of chiropractic, which opponents of chiropractic would have welcomed.
University affiliation is a major key to legitimacy that has eluded chiropractic. Chiropractic’s leadership learned decades ago that the professional advantages that come with a valid system proven by the scientific method could also be obtained through political lobbying. State licensure, reimbursement in the form of Medicare/Medicaid, and federal research funding were all obtained in the political arena. Had the FSU program become reality, it would have been a major step in chiropractic’s quest to achieve legitimacy on par with the medical professions. For now, chiropractors will have to remain content to gather in the company of other practitioners of so called “alternative medicine.”
