These are e-mail replies concerning Life University: 6-20-02 After reading your current newsletter I can only say that I applaud your point of view concerning "loss of focus". I think you have hit the nail on the head. As a graduate of Life (1999) I can say that when I looked at Life I saw an opportunity lost. Life could have truly been a great seat of learning. The money was there, the expertise was there, the time was right. I was sad to see that instead of searching for true academia, basketball and the holy grail of a championship cup was the quest. I would have loved to have seen Life be what you described. I would have been proud to say "My University leads in research!", instead of "yeah, we came close to winning this year" I remember when during one of Dr Sid's talks in the auditorium he said, he would rather have students who make a C average than a school full of A and B students because C students are better doctors. I was sorry to hear the whole auditorium burst into applause. I asked myself, "Is this a president of a University saying these things". Life needs a complete overhaul. The philosophy of "sports comes before education and learning, and science is evil" needs to be exorcized from the halls of the school. Out with the old regime. New blood in upper management is what the school needs. I hope it gets it. There is so much potential there. The school really does deserve so much better. D.M., DC (alumni) Dr. Margolies: I have a comment about the following statements you made in your recent weekly e-mail. Review every department from top to bottom and unload department and division heads that couldn? see the forest from the trees and allowed their faculty to pass students when they should have been weeded out prior to entering our honored profession .. that allowed a consistent poor showing in National Board exams without curriculum changes or challenging responsible faculty. As a long-time faculty member at Life, I have to take offense at that comment. I have stood in class and emphasized to students how important it is for them to think; to be able to make decisions on a moments notice; to integrate knowledge from multiple sources; to be able to deal with wellness patients and patients with multiple problems. I write tests that push their limits, to show them that memorization isn't enough. I make them refer to published sources, since many of them have survived by cramming AmeriPress notes. But...they walk out of my class and go to assembly...or DE....or a weekend seminar that's all philosophy and no science...and listen to some DC beat his chest and proclaim, "ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW is that bones slip out of place and press on nerves and that you gotta correct those subluxations!" (actual quote from assembly speaker, Winter quarter 2002). Tell me, doc, how you raise National Board scores in an atmosphere of such mixed messages as that? I'm sorry, I just don't think our division chairs and department heads are as bad as you seem to. But I do agree that many of these students shouldn't have been there to begin with. I appreciate your e-mails - I just wanted to make that statement. Thanks. (faculty) Doc: I submit to you that the upside that Life receives from its sports teams far outweighs the costs to run them. As a member of the rugby team I may be biased, but as an example I offer up our recent trip to the country of South Africa. We played three matches against Universities that would compare with the University of Texas, and University of Georgia in enrollment. We were able to expose Chiropractic to thousands of people that had never heard of it before. Also, Dr. Sid uses his nationally successful athletic programs to promote Chiropractic. At every event, most of which our teams win, attendees watch athlete after athlete get adjusted, before, during, and after events. I know it would be nice to have more money to go around at the school, but I think athletics is the wrong place to look. i submit to you that the annual athletic budget is less then any of the top 5 or so salaries at Life,,,you cannot convince me that Life does not get bang for its buck in building the athletic facilities. In 1996 300 Olympic athletes participated in a track meet here. The Olympic Judo team trained here, the Handball team as well. The Georgia Force train here now. There have been pro basketball tune up games here. These are just a few examples of the exposure our school receives from its athletic programs. In addition to the example i typed yesterday, Dr. Sid uses his athletic programs to gain national and international notoriety. Answer this question, before these terrible problems began, When did you see Life's name in the media? mostly for athletics. We both know that Life will survive without sports, but I share the big mans vision of exposure of chiropractic thru highly successful sports programs. I believe that we will continue to disagree on the validity of sports programs at Life, but I hope you can see a different point of view,,I enjoy your emails and read them all the time,, as you could probably tell from my quick response to your letter yesterday! I want to invite you out to see one of our games next season so you can see what good ambassadors of Life Chiropractic we are. PS. as for the rugby team, we receive money from our alumni,,,it is money that allows us to compete in the highest competition in the nation,,these guys donate the money to our program because it is were they went to school,,and for most of them ,,the reason why they came to Life,,,so in a way their money is to keep chiropractic available to a certain group of people that would not be exposed otherwise,,and i can say from my experience that the majority of rugby chiropractic graduates bring the same successful attitude that was honed on the field, to their individual practices...DW, student Hey Doc I wanted to reply to a few things. Bear with me because you said so much and I would like to keep it brief. I recall you saying at least twice that you still understand/love/respect etc. or something to that effect the mixers since they are still adjusting anyway. You know what? My loving heart agrees with you but then again I think realistically these people should get a life be truthful with themselves admit they don't want our kind of chiropractic and split off on there own. You said Dr. Sid is stepping down. Now maybe I missed something in the past three days of not checking in but it is my understanding that Sid is retiring in March 2003 and that he has planned that for a while and the search for a new Ph.D. Pres has been underway for quite some time. I would think that if he was stepping down due to this garbage he would do it now not next year. Please correct and update me if I am wrong otherwise please revise that comment in you next email. Finally you and some others have stated something about how the students are suffering and we should just move ahead for there sake. Well, I think they should toughen up. I don't know if you are familiar with the garbage of NJ State bd. from 1998 but it put me and many others behind in practicing and even sent some of us to a different state. Hey did it stink? yah! but is a better system in place so others won't get reamed like others before us? YES The way I see this ccu thing panning out is a nice court battle all the way up the Government and then maybe separate accreditation for different type of Chiro schools and pseudo chiro school Dr. G alumni Dr. M, I am very upset to see that Life U has lost its accreditation. I have never been an extremist; I believe that if you don't force feed an idea to a person they will be more apt to accept it. However to balance the negativity of the medicine cabinet generation as I like to call it, you need an extremist. Dr. Sid was just that. I think the only thing he forgot was to appease the right people to keep doing what he is good at, promoting chiropractic. With all the limitation and cut backs on the DC program at Life U after I graduated, maybe this is the wake up call that the school needed. If it's about $, they made plenty of it. You are correct in saying that the school needs to refocus their attention on chiropractic instead of everything else. The school, its policies and procedures are in need of an "adjustment". Times have changed; people are physically and mentally stressed out more than ever. I believe that chiropractic can and does help, but Life needs to provide more education n not only techniques, but also in diagnosis. So we can see what is wrong and why and explain how, in detail, chiropractic works to help people. As long as technique and philosophy stay at the forefront adding more in-depth and more detailed classes that are not chiropractic (Diagnosis& PT) will only serve to make better clinicians and propel Life to the be the best of all the Chiropractic schools, not only the largest. Bigger is not always better. Palmer is establishing a Chiropractic School in Port Orange, FL. They are seriously going about it the wrong way. I have the unfortunate pleasure of knowing how they got the funding.They are starting classes not in a local high school or college, but the civic center. This to me is another embarrassment to our profession. Get Life U. and Dr. Sid to get their "stuff" in gear. They got what they deserved and now its time to take this opportunity to propel Life U. to Harvard status in education quality. Thanks for listening, Dr. C. alumni