With the Florida Board of Governors poised to issue a key vote this week, newspapers in the state are reporting on FSU's chiropractic proposal -- a "proposal" that the FSU trustees affirmatively decided not to take a position on and that every member of FSU's faculty who has spoken does not want to see continue. Meanwhile, the Florida Chiropractic Association has stepped up its own media effort -- as it describes it, it is "pumping out information" to the media (including information about a completely unrelated antitrust case -- this is not about whether chiropractors may compete with physicians in consumer markets), encouraging its members to send letters to the editor of major Florida newspapers, and launching an online petition.
This morning's Tallahassee Democrat has an article that discusses the issue before the Board of Governor's this week. As the Democrat describes it:
They get their wish Thursday, but not exactly as they hoped. FSU trustees have taken no position on the program initiated by lawmakers. They are asking the Board of Governors for more time to examine their own proposal.
"I believe our board is prepared to make a decision," Carolyn Roberts, chairwoman of the state board, said Friday. "It would not surprise me if it were an up or down vote."
It's unlikely the state board would support the program because it hasn't been fully vetted by the university. But it could vote to reject it or send it back to FSU for more work. The governors are faced with asserting their authority over a graduate program that the Legislature already has authorized.
Another article in this morning's Democrat questions the scientific basis of chiropractic. In that article, FSU Provost Larry Abele concedes that "its a good question" whether such a questionable area of scientific inquiry has any place on FSU's campus. A few other key facts are mention in the article, including:
1) That, over the past 10 years, the federal government hasd only spent about $25 million on chiropractic research. This is a much smaller amount than the numbers FSU's claims in its proposal.
2) According to the newspaper, FSU Provost Larry Abele says that "about 90 percent of chiropractic research is in clinical trials, which measure patient response, and about 5-10 percent is in the basic sciences." He also is quoted: "And the basic sciences is very, very preliminary." Clinical trials for pain treatment -- which often measure patient satisfaction -- are fairly low on the scientific ladder unless they adhere to statistical criteria (including independent verification), which many of the clinical trials Abele refers to do not. As he also mentions, the basic sciences are the more difficuly standard for chiropractic, and to date there is very little (if any) basic evidence regarding the scientific mechanisms which would sustain the claim of necessity for independent chiropractic treatment -- as opposed to treatment by medical physicians, physical therapists, or others.
3) Several FSU faculty have serious doubts about the scientific claims. Quoted in the story are Ross Elington, a professor of biological science at FSU, Marc Freeman, an FSU professor of biology, and David Houle, also a professor of biology at FSU. They join the many other FSU faculty who question the scientific and research basis of FSU pursuing such a program.
A Palm Beach Post editorial this morning has some blunt words of criticism for FSU and its trustees, as well as some advice for the BOG:
the only established basis for the FSU program's existence is as a favor to powerful state lawmakers and lobbyists with FSU connections. Those include Sen. Jim King, R-Jacksonville, who as last year's Senate president railroaded the program and its financing to his alma mater; Sen. Dennis Jones, R-Seminole, then the majority leader and himself an alumnus and chiropractor who reportedly hopes to work at the school; and FSU booster and fellow alum Guy Spearman, lobbyist for the Florida Chiropractors' Association. FSU is run by another former House speaker and alumnus, President T.K. Wetherell.
When FSU's Board of Trustees voted 11-2 last week to forward the chiropractic proposal to the Board of Governors, rather than legitimize the program that is vipering its way backward through the system, Gov. Bush slammed the trustees for dodging the issue. "They should have voted their conscience," he said. "This has gotten way out of hand." The same trustees who had advertised to hire a dean for the chiropractic school wisely concluded that this contrived political showdown is not their fight.
It is clear that FSU's trustees have evaded their statutory mandate; they have refused to take a position. If the BOG wishes to refocus issues at FSU and within the state system, it must vote no on FSU's program. Sending it back to FSU will only delay the inevitable -- that the program will not go forward -- while distracting FSU and its faculty from their key mission. In fact, the Governor's budget this year makes the budget appropriation contingent on a vote of approval by the BOG. Without a yes vote by the BOG, there is no point on continuing to waste time on this issue.
good article
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