Anyone want to be Dean? (D.C. degree required)

FSU pitches its proposal as a general alternative and integrative health college.  If yu read it, you will see that in fact it is nothing more than a chiropractic college.  Here is the ad for Dean, which appears in the Chronicle of Higher Education:

Position: Dean of the Chiropractic College
Institution: Florida State University
Location: Florida
Date posted: 11/12/2004

The Florida State University
Tallahassee, Florida

DEAN OF THE CHIROPRACTIC COLLEGE
Position #: 57856

The Florida State University seeks nominations and applications for the position of Founding Dean of the Chiropractic College, appointment effective Fall 2005. The Dean is the chief academic and administrative officer of the Chiropractic College and reports to the Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs. The Dean is responsible for leading the Chiropractic College in all aspects of teaching, research/scholarly activity, advocacy, service and fund raising. The Dean participates, as a member of the University Council of Deans, in all major decisions concerning the University.

Candidates should evidence solid teaching and scholarships and be nationally distinguished in at least one field of health care as well as be committed to a complete professional and academic program at the graduate level. A D.C. degree is required and a Ph.D. degree is preferred.

The Florida State University is a comprehensive research institution of 17 colleges and schools with 1700 faculty serving a student body of over 38,000. The Florida Legislature authorized the Chiropractic College in 2004.

The University is situated in Tallahassee, Florida's beautiful, wooded capital city, with an area population of over 250,000. Located in the 'Big Bend' area of northern Florida, Tallahassee enjoys a mild change of season and proximity to the Gulf of Mexico.

Please send resume and list of references to: Search Committee for Dean, Attn: Ms. Kayce Morton, Chiropractic College, Florida State University 32306-2772. The search committee will commence its initial screening of applications on February 15, 2005. However, the advertising and search process will remain active until the position is filled.

The Florida State University subscribes to equal opportunity and pluralism and complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act. All eligible candidates are, therefore, invited to apply for position vacancies as appropriate. FSU is a public records agency pursuant to Chapter 110, Florida Statutes.

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Contact Information:

Ms. Kayce Morton
Search Committee for Dean
Chiropractic College
Florida State University
Tallahassee, FL 32306 - 2772

Comments

Very, very suspicious. Advertising for a dean before the college is even approved?

[Hollstrom]

Scott Haldemann, DC, MD, PhD is head of the Department of Neurology, UCLA Medical School, he lectures extensively on integration of chiropractic into the healthcare team. He is very popular lecturer and his colleges are not leaving in droves because he is a chiropractic physician. In fact he feels that the MD degree was for show and so he could use drugs, his DC degree was outstanding education in diagnosis and treatment. Dr. Rand Swenson, Director of Department of Anatomy and Associate Professor of Medicine at Dartmouth University, is a DC, MD, PhD, who reports that he adjusts his collegues regularly, and there was no insurrection when he was hired. Jay Triano and Frederick Carrick are DC, PhD's who conduct medical research in medical facilities and they have no problem. Walter Reed Medical Center and Bethesda Naval Hospital Orthopedists love their chiropractic department, they recently made them the first contact for all back pain. Texas Back Institute, a medical research center for back problems have DC's on staff that are full members of the team

I guess the real problem is either bigotry or ignorance in Tallahassee or a real inferiority complex.

[FSUblius]

Thank you for the examples. I am sure that these are very qualified individuals. At the same time, as you must know, there are many, many more D.C.'s who lack research training altogether -- and some who lack a bachelor's degree. As you note, neither one of your examples has a primary appointment at a chiropractic college, nor does UCLA or Dartmouth propose a stand alone chiropractic program as has bee imposed on FSU. FSU does not have a research hospital, so the issue here is not to find qualified clinicians as in the examples of Walter Reed and Bethesda Naval. Call concerned members of the FSU faculty bigots, if you'd like (though I must question how is that constructive or likely to win our respect?), but we have gone further than any other research university in the U.S. in considering such a proposal. Also, I might suggest, any alternative medicine program that, at its outset, limits its dean and faculty to those with a D.C. degree is more likely to be parochial in perspective than one that looks at the entire universe of qualified Ph.D. and M.D. professionals, as well as D.C.'s. I sincerely do not think that we are the ones with the inferiority complex -- if we can find a qualified dean with a D.C. that is terrific -- but I do find it offensive that FSU is not even allowed to consider a chiropractic program outside of the narrow parameters that have been imposed on us by the legislature and the chiropractic profession lobby (including advertising for a dean and making a D.C. a requirement). This is not the way any other university is run, so please tell us why should FSU should submit to your accusation of bigotry?

One more thing: I do not find a Scott Haldemann on the UCLA Neurology Faculty and, in fact, see no one with a D.C. mentioned as one their faculty. See http://www.neurology.ucla.edu/faculty/. I did find an associate *clinical* professor of that name affiliated with UC Irvine. Neither UCLA nor Dartmouth have chiropractic programs, although Dartmouth does have an affiliated consortium of some sort focuswed on chiropractic. I could not find any publications by Swenson, but please let me know if I am missing something. I would have no problem if FSU were attempting to emulate UCLA, UC Irvine or Dartmouth!