FSU Board of Trustees Spineless on Chiropractic Program Proposal
Yesteday, FSU's Board of Trustees decided not to vote to "recommend" or "approve" the FSU chiropractic proposal. Instead, in a spineless act of university governance, it voted 11-2 to adopt a motion asking the permission of the state-wide Board of Governors to "investigate" a chiropractic proposal. This is an odd request for a university that has has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars to draft a detailed proposal for a new school and that has been advertising nationally for a chiropractic dean since last November. However, faculty opposition and concerns for the impact of this proposal on the reputation of the university finally seem to be percolating up to the members of the Board of Trustees. No single member of the Board of Trustees spoke in favor of the proposal. In fact, at the trustees meeting, at least 5 Trustees raised serious concerns -- primarily with faculty and alumni outrage, the specious scientific basis of the curriculum, Florida's law on chiropractic licensing (which allows the chiropractic treatment of acne, earaches, etc.), and the impact of going forward on FSU's academic and scientific reputation. The 11-2 vote is clearly a decision to punt, and wait and see what the state-wide Board of Governors does in reaction. It should not be taken as an endorsement of -- or even acquiesence in -- a chiropractic plan, as many members of FSU's Board of Trustees do not support the proposal and no member of the Board openly supports it.
Many articles appear in newspapers through the state this morning. The accounts in the St. Petersburg Times (headlined "FSU Sidesteps School Decision") and Tallahassee Democrat are perhaps the best introduction to the meeting and the Board of Trustees decision, but all of the media stories are indexed below.
The FSU Board of Trustees decision to "punt" is a despicable and spineless act of university governance. Members of the FSU community expect more from their governing body. The FSU Board of Trustees has shown itself incapable of making a decision itself -- on this issue and many others. Apparently, FSU's Board of Trustees would rather see FSU's faculty waste its time and take the political heat for rejecting the school, than make a decision itself. The state-wide Board of Governors would do FSU's faculty and alumni a big favor by rejecting the proposal once and for all, rather than sending it back to FSU.
FSUblius expects that this will be in the national press in the coming weeks. This morning, the AP put out the following story (from Alabama; see Jacksonville version here) on faculty discontent at FSU on Southwire, and it is already appearing in nespapers throughout Florida and Alabama. Here are the statewide newspaper accounts of the Board of Trustees meeting, with highlight quotations from the news stories:
Dr. Raymond Bellamy, an orthopedist and FSU professor who has led opposition to the chiropractic school, called the trustees' decision "cowardly."
"They figured out a way to say (to the Board of Governors), "It's up to you guys,' " Bellamy said after the vote. "Is that courageous? Isn't it their job to be stewards of our university?"
Bellamy said the trustees should have killed the school themselves, and several trustees were inclined to move in that direction. Instead, he said, they have postponed the execution, given the outright hostility of many faculty members and critical comments from the Board of Governors.
Board of Governors member Steve Uhlfelder suggested Bellamy might be right.
"With this weak a recommendation, it would be hard to approve it," Uhlfelder said. "How much longer can we fool with it?"
. . . . . . . .
Those supporting said they wanted more direction from the Board of Governors before subjecting faculty to an exhaustive review. If the board has already made up its mind to kill the school, then "it doesn't seem to be an efficient use of state resources and human time" to do a review, said FSU provost Larry Abele.
"I think they're going to hand it back to us," said FSU President T.K. Wetherell. "I think they're going to punt."
But at least one board member questions whether FSU should be given more time to evaluate the program.
"Universities aren't sheepish when they want something. It doesn't sound like they're for it," said Steve Uhlfelder, a Tallahassee attorney and member of the Board of Governors. "I can't see prolonging this thing if the faculty and trustees don't want it."
Trustees voted 11-2 Friday to ask the Board of Governors' permission to investigate a chiropractic program in accordance with existing university policies. That means trustees don't plan to take a stance on the issue unless it's gone through normal procedures that involve faculty examination.
Several trustees - including June Duda, Dr. Jessie Furlow and Manny Garcia - were vocal in their opposition to having a chiropractic program. But trustees sidestepped any vote that nailed down the full board's opinion.
Garcia voted against the motion because he thinks even considering a chiropractic school could hurt FSU's academic reputation, especially as it is recruiting faculty and students to its new medical school. No other public research school has started offering chiropractic degrees, he said.
"Why do we have to be the guinea pig?" Garcia said after the meeting.
There is speculation that the Board of Governors, which will meet later this month in Gainesville, will kill the proposal, which calls for starting the program in 2006 and eventually hiring more than 100 professors.
But many of the FSU trustees made it clear that even if the Board of Governors gives them a green light, the proposal would be investigated and reviewed further by faculty and return for a final vote of trustees before the college starts offering classes.
''I'm not voting to approve a chiropractic college,'' said FSU trustees Chairman John Thrasher.
``Before we go through an extensive amount of time and energy and work among our faculty and students, we ought to ask them whether we can investigate it further.''
. . . . . . .
In the past few weeks there has been a backlash from FSU faculty and doctors affiliated with FSU's fledgling medical school, who contend that the addition of a chiropractic college could tarnish FSU's image as a major research university. On Friday, 29 current and former faculty members, including two Nobel Prize winners, took out a full-page ad in the Tallahassee Democrat asking trustees to vote against the college.
Technically, the trustees asked for more time to study the issue, voting 11-2 to ``recommend the Board of Governors allow FSU to investigate, in accordance with university policies, adding a chiropractic degree program.''
Realistically, the trustees rejected the expectations of the Board of Governors, which may respond by rejecting the program.
In a letter dated Thursday, Board of Governors Chairwoman Carolyn Roberts had asked trustees to make their views clear.
``I expect the FSU Board of Trustees will take appropriate action to approve the program at its meeting on Friday,'' Roberts wrote. ``If not, the Board of Governors will consider the application incomplete and will reject the request for review.''
Roberts stood by her guns late Friday.
``I listened to the meeting, and I don't think they misinterpreted my letter,'' she said of the trustees. ``They chose another action than what we asked them to do - and which, in my opinion, was not appropriate.''
Roberts said she would meet with her board's counsel Tuesday before making a recommendation to her fellow governors.
``In my opinion, they didn't complete the application appropriately, and it may not be something we even need to consider,'' she said.
Dr. Ray Bellamy, a professor at the university's medical school and an orthopedic surgeon, warned that Florida State's reputation could suffer if it becomes the nation's first public university to create a chiropractic school.
"The risks to FSU from such an affiliation are huge," he said.. . . . . . . . . .
Trustee Manny Garcia is against the school, and cast one of the two votes to kill the idea where it stood.
He said he was concerned about the potential harm to the university's reputation.
"Why do we have to be the guinea pig?" he asked.
If the Board of Governors does approve the school, it would take more than a year for FSU's faculty and administration to study the matter and finally vote on it again.
FSU provost Larry Abele told the school's board that comments, both public and private, from the governors led him to recommend that FSU's board should avoid a vote.
"One could say (the Board of Governors) have not been overwhelmingly supportive" of the chiropractic school, Abele said.
The unspoken outcome was that Friday's sidestep may force the Board of Governors to kill the school favored by powerful lawmakers, saving the FSU board from future enmity in the Capital.
A "spineless" approach to a chiropractic proposal, how ironic.
Posted by: | January 15, 2005 at 08:10 AM
Forget subluxation, the BOT needs a spine transplant.
Posted by: | January 15, 2005 at 08:11 AM