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Education

Chiropractors, FSU trading harsh words

The tightknit relationship created during efforts to build a chiropractic school has been left in tatters after a bitter political tussle.

By RON MATUS
Published April 7, 2005

	Read the text of the letters between the Florida Chiropractic Association and FSU President T.K. Wetherell.

Two months after plans for a chiropractic school crashed in a politically charged heap, the once cozy relationship between Florida State University and the state's chiropractors has turned icy cold.

In a sharply worded letter this week, FSU president T.K. Wetherell told the Florida Chiropractic Association that FSU's foundation will "gladly return" more than $1-million in donations and "honor your request to sever all ties."

Wetherell was responding to charges from the association's CEO, Debra Brown, that FSU didn't fight hard enough to win support for the school, which the state Board of Governors voted to kill Jan. 27.

"Mr. President, the lack of interest on the part of FSU is very evident," Brown wrote to Wetherell on March 18. "If the presence of a chiropractic degree program would somehow taint the faculty and other programs at FSU, then our financial support should not be needed or wanted, as well."

Wetherell's response:

"Philanthropy is an act of giving and supposedly not a quid pro quo proposition. . . . Possibly you will find other institutions that will provide you with the services you seek because your association "gave enough money.' "

The dueling letters put to rest any lingering notions the chiropractic school might be resurrected.

Last spring, the Legislature approved $9-million a year for the school with virtually no debate and no consultation with the Board of Governors, which oversees the state university system. The plan: Create the first public chiropractic school in the country.

The effort was led by Sen. Dennis Jones, R-Treasure Island, a chiropractor who wanted to work at the school, and Sen. Jim King, an FSU graduate who warned of financial repercussions if the school got shot down.

The power politics angered FSU faculty, who also were upset by charges that chiropractic is a pseudo-science and the university's association with it would stain FSU's reputation. In the weeks leading up to the board vote, hundreds of professors reportedly signed petitions and a handful in the fledgling College of Medicine threatened to resign. One even circulated a parody map that put the chiropractic school near a Bigfoot Institute.

If that didn't make the issue messy enough, the chiropractic school plopped into a simmering turf battle between the Legislature and Board of Governors over who makes decisions for universities.

In the end, the board said no.

Wetherell, a former state House speaker, strongly backed the school last year and sided with legislative leaders. But at the Board of Governors meeting, he struck a more conciliatory tone, saying FSU was caught in the middle of a conflict "not of our doing."

Neither Wetherell nor FSU provost Larry Abele could be reached for comment Wednesday. But in his April 4 letter, Wetherell noted that since efforts to establish the chiropractic school began in the 1990s, two FSU presidents, a provost and several vice presidents and deans spent "literally thousands of hours" trying to make it become reality.

Brown also could not be reached for comment, but chiropractors remain steamed.

Jack Hebert, a spokesman for the Florida Chiropractic Association, said FSU could have defended itself more vigorously instead of offering a "namby-pamby soft response."

"I didn't see anybody with both feet on it," Hebert said. "And as you can see from the president's letter, this is not a university that shies from putting both feet on something."

In her letter to Wetherell, Brown said the chiropractic association is canceling a reception at FSU this month in which it had planned to submit a letter of commitment for $500,000 and offer the first installment check of $100,000.

The association also is canceling its $100,000 radio contract with Seminole Radio Network and wants the FSU Foundation to return donations to chiropractic-related programs "over the last five years, plus interest," Brown wrote.

FSU could not determine Wednesday exactly how much money it will return.

The donations in question include $1-million from a private chiropractic college that was used to establish an eminent scholar chair, and $30,000 to $100,000 from the Florida Chiropractic Association and Florida Chiropractic Foundation.

Wetherell told Brown FSU has suffered for its support of chiropractic.

Last year, he wrote, Gov. Jeb Bush vetoed $15-million in projects earmarked for FSU because of the proposed school, and the Board of Governors cut $15-million in building money and steered it to other universities.

"All of these new projects were added at the expense of FSU," he wrote, "because FSU pushed the chiropractic issue too far."

FSU is erasing other vestiges of its flirtation with the school.

Most of the $9-million set aside for the chiropractic school is being plowed into a new building on campus. The school probably will not renew the one-year, $85,000 contract of a doctor of chiropractic it hired as an administrator, said spokeswoman Browning Brooks.

[Last modified April 7, 2005, 01:22:13]