Life University is located in Marietta, Georgia. It specializes in degrees in Chiropractic, and also offers programs in Pre-Chiropractic, Business, Nutrition, Sport Health Sciences and Biology. [1] The university's current president is Dr. Guy Riekeman, D.C., former Chancelor of the Palmer Chiropractic University System. Dr. Riekeman was appointed President of Life in March 2004. Marietta is a city located in central Cobb County, GeorgiaGR6, and is its county seat. ... Chiropractic is a complementary and alternative health care profession which aims to diagnose, treat, and prevent mechanical disorders of the musculoskeletal system and their effects on the nervous system and general health. ...

History

Life University was founded in 1974 by Dr. Sid Williams as Life Chiropractic College. The university was established on the site of a placer gold mine. Twenty-two students attended the first classes in January, 1975. They became known as "Day one class". Yet by 1990, the school had grown to become the largest college of chiropractic in the world. [2] A sluice box used in placer mining Placer mining (pronounced plass-er) is a open-pit or open-cast form of mining by which certain valuable minerals are extracted from the earth without tunneling. ...

Controversy

On June 7, 2002, the Commission on Accreditation of the Council on Chiropractic Education (CCE) revoked Life University's accreditation. See timeline Timeline June 7 is the 158th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (159th in leap years), with 207 days remaining. ... For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... Generally, accreditation is the process by which a facility becomes officially certified as providing services of a reasonably good quality, so that the public can trust in the quality of its services. ...

The actual citations leading to revocation of Life's accrediation were not revealed to the public. Former students and graduates of the university have, however, come forward to claim that Dr. Williams' philosophy was such that nearly every instance of patients' pain and discomfort "are caused by subluxations and warrant chiropractic treatment." [3] This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Dr. Williams resigned as President of Life University as a direct result of this incident, and the corporate board which had governed the university was dissolved. Michael J. Schmidt was appointed President to succeed Dr. Williams in August, 2002. A subsequent appeal kept the accreditation in force until October of that year, but by November enrollment at the school had plummeted to 865 students. In a lawsuit filed by Life against CCE in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Judge Charles E. Moye, Jr. granted an injunction on February 10, 2003 retroactively restoring Life's accreditation. [4] Because the injunction was retroactive, Life's accreditation effectively never ceased, though this has not yet dispelled the controversy. February 10 is the 41st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

On August 30, 2004, Dr. Sid Williams and Life University settled lawsuits which had been filed against one another, and Dr. Williams subsequently returned to association with the university. [5] Dr. Williams appeared before the Georgia Council of Chiropractic on September 11, 2004 to appeal for donations and support in the university's endeavour to become re-accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Life University's accreditation with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) was reaffirmed on December 7, 2004. The University is accredited through 2011. August 30 is the 242nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (243rd in leap years), with 123 days remaining. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... September 11 is the 254th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (255th in leap years). ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) is a regional accreditor for over 13,000 public and private educational institutions ranging from preschool to college level in the Southern United States. ... December 7 is the 341st day (342nd in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

2006 Controversy

The Council on Chiropractic Education (CCE), the sole accrediting body for all chiropractic schools in the United States, faces possible loss of recognition by the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) arising from its handling of three open complaints pertaining to chiropractic schools accredited by the agency.

The most serious complaint was filed in 2004 by a 1996 graduate of the Life University College of Chiropractic named Allen Botnick from Plainfield, NJ. Dr. Botnick established that CCE violated USDOE accreditation requirements by not investigating his complaint in a fair and timely manner after nine months had passed without the agency taking action on a complaint pertaining to Life University in Marietta, Georgia. The complaint detailed numerous violations at the school including: the use of anti-medical propaganda in course texts, unapproved diagnosis procedures, exaggeration of the benefits of chiropractic care, overutilization of x-rays, inadequate clinical experiences, unqualified faculty and the promotion of unethical practice management procedures. After discovering the problems Dr. Botnick surrendered all chiropractic licenses. He refuses to practice, stating that his education did not teach him to identify and treat patient complaints in a safe, effective and ethical manner.

One particularly disturbing section of Botnick’s complaint describes three individuals at Life University who died as a result of ignoring obvious disease symptoms and shunning medical care. All three displayed unrealistic expectations for chiropractic care. The first student, Julian Ho, ignored a medical doctor's warning to seek medical treatment after showing signs of diabetes and later died as a result of the disease. Another student named Louis Menendez died from a heart attack arising from untreated heart disease. The final case involved a chiropractic technique instructor named John Grostic who died after ignoring a medical doctor's warning to seek treatment for a chronic cough which turned out to be due to metastatic lung cancer.

The Council on Chiropractic Education (CCE) initially refused to investigate Botnick's complaint, stating that they were prevented from doing so because of a sealed settlement made with the school following litigation in Federal Court.

Botnick complained that a brief filed in the Federal Court of Appeals (Council on Chiropractic Education, Inc., et al. v. Life University, Inc., U.S. Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit, NO. 03-11020J) showed that CCE had known of the presence of many of the violations as early as 1992 yet took no action against the school until revoking its accreditation in 2002. USDOE found that CCE had indeed violated accreditation requirements by not addressing the complaint in a timely manner and ordered CCE to investigate it. CCE’s response to the agency indicated that the complaint was valid but claimed to have addressed it in accreditation proceedings. USDOE ordered CCE to provide documentation substantiating the corrections but CCE ignored the requests and the complaint remains unresolved.

The open complaints will be discussed at an open public hearing of the Accrediting Agency Evaluation Unit of the Office of Postsecondary Education at the U.S. Department of Education. The meeting will be used to formulate a recommendation to the Secretary of Education regarding whether or not the Council on Chiropractic Education should continue to be recognized.

If unsuccessful in its bid to gain continued recognition, CCE would be the second chiropractic educational body to lose recognition with USDOE. In 1993 the Straight Chiropractic Academic Standards Association (SCASA) lost recognition after Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander determined it to be an unreliable judge of the quality of education in its programs.

The meeting is scheduled for Tuesday June 6, 2006 at 8 a.m. EST at the Hilton Hotel located on 950 North Stafford Street in Arlington, Virginia.[6]

External links

• Life University Official website
• "Life University loses accreditation - link to National Public Radio"
• "ChiroTalk - Student discussion forum features IN DEPTH information on Life University
• "Accreditor Implicated in Chiropractic College Overutilization Scam, Faces Hearing with US Department of Education"