It is an accomplishment for any research university to make the pages of Science magazine (subscription required). This week (14 January 2005), FSU is in a headline story, at p. 164, but it is not something the campus should be proud of. The story discusses the rancor a chiropractic program has caused among FSU's science faculty, and draws the comparison to York University's rejection of a similar program several years ago. The story includes the now-infamous map of FSU's campus drawn in jest by a faculty member. After summarizing the argument for the program, the story includes this quotation:
None of those arguments is enough to convince neuroscientist Marc Freeman, one of 40 FSU professors--including Nobel Prize-winning chemist Harry Kroto and physicist J. Robert Schrieffer--who have signed a petition against the proposal. Apart from the lack of a scientific basis, he says, the chiropractic school is a threat to FSU's academic independence. "We cannot have the legislature forcing a program on a public university," he says.
Faculty opposition to this program is widefelt on campus and deep. A story in this morning's St. Petersburg Times summarizes the very clear sentiment expressed in yesterday's faculty forum at FSU on the chiropractic proposal: The faculty do not want this on this campus.
Today's Palm Beach Post also reports on the faculty forum, emphasizing that faculty have the final say on this new program under FSU university bylaws. Also, a story summarizing the faculty concern over the proposal appears in today's Tampa Tribune. Another story appears in the Jacksonville Time-Union.
The Tallahasse Democrat also has a story this morning summarizing the faculty forum. Stan Marshall, a member of the FSU Board of Trustees, summed up the problem:
"I don't know why I am feeling so uninformed," Marshall said earlier this week. "Maybe we weren't listening."
He is prescisely right: Has TK Wetherell listened to faculty? Has John Thrasher? Has Jim King? This is not a faculty-recommended program, has been devised with little or no faculty input, and should not go forward absent faculty approval.
Another story appears in the Lakeland Ledger. And, of course, the student newspaper at UF had to chime in on how ridiculous FSU looks too.
As newspapers in the state have previously reported, the Graduate Policy Committee has voted 22-0 against this. The faculty do not want it. Period. End of story art any credible academic institution -- except perhaps FSU.
If FSU's Board of Trustees approves going forward with the proposal, without allowing faculty governance to run its course, it is a failure of university governance. If FSU's Board of Trustees does not vote on the proposal and asks the faculty, it is hypocritical -- as it claims it, rather than the BOG, has the power to approve it. It has no credible option other than to vote no at this time on the chiropractic program. That is the right and responsible thing for FSU.
Props to the faculty for stading up on this. Maybe their work will ensure that they and their students can get back to publishing in a good way.
Posted by: Amanda | January 14, 2005 at 10:45 AM
We're keeping our eyes on this to see what unfolds. At this point, it looks like a matter of whether political pressure will be allowed to trump common sense and the established governance process. Keep the news coming!
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