The Faculty Begins to Speak

As is reported this morning, at its meeting on the chiropractic program yesterday the FSU Faculty Senate Graduate Policy Committee approved this motion 22-0:

All curricular issues are the province of the Florida State University faculty. The Graduate Policy Committee (GPC) is the designated body of the faculty that considers and either approves or disapproves the addition of any new graduate or professional program.

The GPC is in the process of studying the proposal to establish a Doctor of Chiropractic Program and plans to gather more information. Presently, the GPC is not prepared to approve this program and therefore, no further action should be taken at this time without GPC approval. If this proposal were to move forward without GPC approval, that would be in violation of established precedents and procedures. Therefore, if forced to decide now, the vote would be to disapprove this program on procedural grounds.

This motion is NOT intended to prevent the university administration from complying with the Board of Governors.

The story in this morning's Tallahassee Democrat provides further details.  A couple of observations:

1)  Although this motion reads as a procedural motion, at the meeting many faculty members raise concerns with the merits of the proposed chiropractic program.  Some see it as lacking scientific basis, or calling science into question.  Others questioned its place at a research university.  Still others question whether it justifies a stand-alone college, whether FSU could better spend the money on other programs, and the process by which this proposal came into being.  Here's what the news account says:

faculty members voiced several concerns they'd like a subcommittee to study, including which other campus departments would be expected to provide faculty help, the merits and funding sources of chiropractic research and how a chiropractic program would affect FSU's credibility.

Based on emerging faculty-wide opposition, FSUblius doubts the motion would have passed FSU's GPC, or the Senate more generally, on the merits.

2)  This committee is one of the only opportunities for formal faculty input prior to the FSU Board of Governors meeting (though there will be a non-voting faculty forum this Thursday -- see below).  FSU's administration has attempted to ram this proposal through over Winter break with no faculty input.  Now, though, Provost Larry Abele is now stating that the BOT may only "submit" the proposal to another body.  It would lead to a faculty standoff if the BOT were to "approve" the program when the key faculty committee that normally approves new programs is opposed to it going forward; this BOT and administration have no credibility with the faculty and probably cannot afford that.  It is no surprise that FSU's BOT is unwilling to take a stand on this issue (has it taken a stand on anything???), but it appears that the GPC vote will have important implications for what FSU's BOT may do at its meeting on Friday.

All-in-all, for anyone who cares about faculty governance, FSU's Senate Graduate Policy Committee is a model of independence and deliberation.  However, for anyone who cares about FSU this is just the latest scene in a very sad chapter in FSU's history.  If FSU had a serious academic administration, the issue never would have been put in the hands of the faculty in the first place (isn't it a job of the university president to insulate the faculty from political criticism?), but this administration is so intertwined with state and local politics that it will not take on one or two key personalities in the state legislature.  FSU's administrators continue to dance around on eggshells as if this will explode politically, costing them millions, but FSUblius believe that FSU's BOT and the BOG could move the university forward by killing this off.   FSU needs to be spending its time and political capital discussing other proposals that will improve its university -- not this boondoggle. 

The Tallahassee Democrat story concludes by highlighting the upcoming events surrounding this proposal:

There will be a faculty forum, hosted by the Graduate Policy Committee at the request of the Faculty Senate Steering Committee, at 3 p.m. Thursday in Ruby Diamond Auditorium. The forum is open to the public.

Florida State University trustees will consider submitting the chiropractic-program proposal at their 1:30 p.m. Friday meeting at the FSU Research Building, 2000 Levy Ave.

The Board of Governors, which requested the proposal, is scheduled to consider FSU's plans at its Jan. 27 meeting in Gainesville.

FSUblius will blog on the discussion at the forum this coming Thursday.  Please continue emailing information, or commenting on the posts!

Comments

[Young]

I have to say that I am very glad that I did not attend FSU and honestly, never even looked into it because outside of Florida, FSU is known as a party school. I am surprised that even 2 nobel laureates came from your school. Even your sports programs are in a huge decline. Can anyone say Gators? To set the record straight, I am from the midwest with no affiliation with Florida but am pretty amused at how blatantly naive, pretentious, and pompous FSU's faculty seem to be. They make a huge fuss over something that they deem "psuedomedicine" when over the years, the benefits of chiropractics has been very well documented and accepted by the government, the public, and the medical community. Like someone once told me, chiropractors never accidentally cut off the wrong limb or left their instruments inside of someone. How about all the unnecessay procedures and tests traditional medicine requires in order to boost revenues and profits? FSU's academic integrity will not be measured based on incorporation of a chiropractor school. Instead, the extreme measures that the FSU faculty is taking that border almost on desperation and fear will hurt FSU in the long run because as time has shown us, chiropractic techniques are beneficial. FSU faculty, you remind me of all those "scientists" who claimed that the world was flat or those that forced Galileo into submission. Shame on you!

[John Scherger]

Chiropractic is simply physical medicine and the people that are against chiropractic at FSU are simply chemical medicine advocates. On spinalfitness.com to read and appreciate the differences open up the link.
Western Civilization Physical vs. Chemical Medicine Heritage

Chiropractic or physical medicine has a 2000 year old heritage of studying man through the science of motion. The science of motion is musculo-skeletal leverage physics. Florida and FSU has the opportunity to be a world leader in physical medicine.