April 2005, Vol. 15, Iss. 2

Table of Contents

Altered Cervical Lordosis and DJD • Chiropractor Invents Car Seat Headpiece • DACBRs Cause Professional Embarrassment at RAC • Eight Major Aberrant Forms of the Lumbo-Pelvic Spine • European Spine Journal to Publish 6th CBP® Clinical Control Trial • Evidence Based or Not • Glutamate/Aspartame - Pain and Your Brain • Greg Buchanan Donates $30,000 to CBP® Nonprofit • Inappropriate Characterization of CBP® Technique • Missed Appointments and Patient Education • Money, Taxes, Life and Practice • Palmer College Takes Alumni Group to Court • PosturePrint™ Research with ICA • Presenting Defendable Care Options to Patients • Published Papers Near 81 • Resign or be Terminated • Thermography: Renewed Interest • Using Silence to Communicate • Whiplash Injuries: Pathophysiology, Diagnosis, Medical Management and Prognosis

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Palmer College Takes Alumni Group to Court

By Ann McGlynn

[Reprinted with permission from Quad City Times]

               Palmer College of Chiropractic is taking its alumni organization to court. The institution cut ties with its alumni association earlier this month, ordering it to stop using the Palmer name and logo, among other things. Now it is asking a Scott County District judge to issue an injunction barring the Palmer College of Chiropractic International Alumni Association, or PCCIAA, from using what it believes is copyrighted. “We had hoped to receive some sort of positive outcome from the former PCCIAA following their meeting last weekend. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen,” Palmer president Donald Kern said. “So, as part of the normal process in a situation like this, we have taken appropriate action through the courts.”

              The dispute focuses on whether the alumni association should have a voting member on the college’s Board of Trustees, officials from both sides say. Palmer officials say the association is disseminating false and defamatory information about the college and its leaders and publicly criticizing the school as well. Scott Harris, the president of the PCCIAA, said the association stands behind its stance of “open and honest” dialogue about the college. “There is nothing revolutionary about this stance. It is simply academic freedom and the American right of freedom of speech. We do not want to abdicate our rights, as an organization or as individuals, to speak our minds and hearts when it concerns our alma mater.”

              Even though the association abandoned the push for a voting member, “the aggressive push to eliminate the association by the college continued,” he added. “We will not be silenced,” Harris said. “It appears to us as though there is a hidden agenda behind this attack. Why an institution would work so viciously and aggressively to rid itself of an organization that has referred so many students and donated so much money is beyond us.” The alumni association was begun 40 years ago by David Palmer, the father of Vickie Palmer, who now serves as chairman of the college Board of Trustees, Harris said. The organization has about 2,000 members. Fifty members representing the state associations attended the group’s annual meeting earlier this month in Davenport, a meeting that was moved from the Palmer campus, Harris said. “We want to do our part, but it has to be very clear: We expect our college to strive for the highest level of academic governance in its structures, processes and ethics. No one should expect less.”