On June 10, 2002, Life University, Marietta, Ga, lost its accreditation. The school has appealed, but may lose this appeal as early as November 2002. At last count, there are approximately 2,600 chiropractic students and hundreds of undergraduate students on the campus grounds. The number of students in the process of transferring is anyone’s guess.

Since my 1978 graduation from Life University, the third graduating class, I have witnessed the metamorphasis of Life College of Chiropractic from a small warehouse to an expansive campus. As the school grew, it lost root and focus. The winds of change and diversity, although a threat to principled and philosophical chiropractic, was within the grasp of an administration unable or unwilling to offer an expanded curriculum.

As a student of diversity, I reject dogmatism from our mixer or straight camps. No one has all the answers; we are products of our education and experience, and therefore have biases. In my 25 years of practice, primarily as a principled and philosophical chiropractor, I witnessed the vast majority of my patients increase their physical potential. As a graduate, I made daily judgement calls on when to refer to allied health care professionals, how to testify in court, when patients needed expanded care, and I diversified my techniques as research provided new ideas. I did not remain stagnant. The debate to expand scope or maintain the status quo was of interest to me, but never an obsession. Depending on your schooling, a subluxation may be a medieval, 19th-century, outdated, false premise without scientific validity, or a means to explain the nuances of human physiology within a biomechanical frame of reference.

To belittle either camp without acknowledging that the adjustment is crucial in our overwrought and physically strained society, is both foolish at best and criminal in outcome at worst. Within the parameters of each diverse point of view, there is room for compromise and growth. With the loss of accreditation after a year of probation, Life University decided it cannot tolerate diversity and is now on the brink of institutional suicide. They, or whatever emerges from the facility, will eventually either accept the rules of engagement or waste away. There is no other alternative.

I truly admire Sid Williams, DC, founder and president of the school, whose goal was to preserve the principle and philosophy. But, it may have drained him emotionally and financially, and taken away from his primary product: chiropractic students. This was a leader who micromanaged, allowed a dream to usurp reality, and created an atmosphere for less creativity in a very structured and stifled environment. This was a school administration that played Russian roulette with its adversary and lost. This is an institution with great potential to lead, through its sports department, by researching the nuances of physiological peak performance and rehabilitation, thereby merging the sciences of medicine and chiropractic. This is also an institution that may have grown too large, with students possibly unable to receive the best learning environment in both class and clinic, and with a stifled faculty.

The Board of Trustees and the Life administration approved years of increased expenditure through expansion of buildings, and nonchiropractic programs that necessitated additional staffing with little regard to the financial or educational costs and burden. Facing reduced numbers of entering students, Life downsized qualified chiropractic teachers and advisors. The remaining legacy is right in step with the present corporate climate of mismanagement and creative financial wizardry. This is a travesty, which has proven devastating to the futures of thousands of established students.

But, diversity goes both ways. The fact that the Council on Chiropractic Education is primarily a broad-based institution dictating the criteria for accreditation, is in itself questionable. Our pluralistic philosophical diversity is as old and established as the first adjustment, and should be cherished and maintained with respect for all sides. The political and egotistical clashes between Life and CCE camps brought this dreadful scandal to a head. Since the creation of the CCE, there has never been a failed accreditation with right and privileges permanently removed. These are dangerous and uncharted waters. Room to compromise must be entertained.

With the removal of Williams, the Board of Trustees now begins to grapple with what went wrong. They will review the few stumbling barriers that failed the most recent CCE review. They must determine where streamlining and overall downsizing should begin. They must question the programs that exact a huge financial drain. And, they have to decide where to implement the crossover between an inherited philosophy with an up-to-date, real-world practice protocol, and allow the divergence of multiple points of view and training. It will not be easy, but it must be done for Life to breath life.

There are various proposals as to what should happen. Does Life merge with another institution to allow present students to graduate? Does it lose the appeal and request a fast-track accreditation schedule with changes in place? Does it close its doors after students transfer en masse and fewer students enroll? Who knows? Your guess is as good as mine. But consider this: Life has a campus primed and ready to teach with nearly all criteria for accreditation in place and faculty, students, and equipment ready and willing.

I propose that the CCE allow an unprecedented additional year of probation, allowing the new administration and the Board of Trustees to implement the necessary procedures to improve on any educational and clinical shortfalls. Not only will this will maintain the student base, but there will be less of a devastating effect on staff, faculty, students, and community. CP

Joel E. Margolies, DC, has been practicing for 24 years in Atlanta, and is the Chiropractic Products Practice Sense columnist (“Make My Holiday,” page 42). He can be reached via email: joel3639@aol.com,   or website: www.chirosmart.net.

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