School to graduate 236 on Sunday

06/11/03

By Phillip Giltman

Marietta Daily Journal Staff Writer

MARIETTA — Even critics admit, Life University has defied all odds.

Detractors predicted that when the Council on Chiropractic Education stripped the 29-year-old institution of its chiropractic accreditation exactly 366 days ago, the school would either go bankrupt or be forced to shut down its operation.

Instead, the school is preparing to graduate 236 students in the school’s gymnasium Sunday.

“This institution is surviving, it’s going to continue to survive, and it’s going to get bigger and better,” Life President Dr. Ben DeSpain said Tuesday. “It’s not about me or any individual, it’s about rebuilding a quality program, and we are in the business of doing just that.”

Life spokesman Will Hurst said 194 of the 236 students will graduate as doctors of chiropractic from Life University Sunday. Hurst said as of spring quarter, 1,235 students were enrolled at Life, 752 of whom were in the school’s chiropractic program.

When Life first lost its chiropractic accreditation, the institution witnessed its student enrollment dwindle to 450 chiropractic students.

Prior to the loss of accreditation, Life University boasted a student enrollment of over 3,200 chiropractic students.

Former Life professor Paul Lapides, a critic of Life University, said he never thought the institution would be graduating students this year.

“The odds were staked so high against the school,” he said. “DeSpain’s brilliance, tenacity and continuous efforts to get the school back on track is truly unprecedented in the accrediting world.”

DeSpain said getting the school back on track and adopting a balanced budget was quite an arduous task.

“We’ve had to make some difficult decisions,” he said. “It looked like the federal government was trying to kill us, the accrediting agency was trying to kill us, and everywhere we turned, there was something against us, but we were able to fight through it. I just don’t think there is a way to kill us. We are living on cat lives.”

DeSpain said 300 full-time students generate about $5 million in revenue for the school on an annual basis.

“We lost about 1,800 over a very short period of time — that’s a $30 million hit,” he said. “Not many organizations can survive a $30 million hit.”

To compensate, DeSpain said the school had to lay off a number of employees, sell excess property, consolidate its efforts, reach into its reserves and turn its assets into liquid.

“We took a hit, we staggered, but it has been sustained, and we are looking at a balanced budget,” he said. “We can start to build up our reserves again for expansion and growth in the future.”

DeSpain said a number of alumni and Life affiliates are planning to make monetary contributions to help the school get back on track.

Dr. Tim Langley, former dean of admissions at Life, who was recently laid off, said the 500 students who stuck with the school during its unprecedented accreditation crisis deserve all the credit.

“They are the heroes in this whole saga,” he said. “They are the ones who kept the school operating.”

Board of Trustees Chairman Dr. Chuck Ribley said Life has the finest chiropractic education in the world, and the current administration is going to do everything in its power to sustain it.

“I feel we will continue to maintain our accreditation, and we are working to resolve our issues with the CCE,” he said.

Sunday’s commencement will mark the second graduation ceremony the school has held since Senior U.S. District Judge Charles Moye Jr. issued an injunction Feb. 10 reinstating the school’s chiropractic accreditation. Seventy students, 14 of whom were chiropractic students, graduated March 21 at Life’s 73^rd commencement at the Renaissance Waverly Hotel inside the Cobb Galleria Centre.

Life University filed a lawsuit against the Arizona-based CCE claiming the accrediting agency acted unfairly in its June 10, 2002, decision to strip Life of its chiropractic accreditation and was not giving the school a fair timeline to restore its credentials. In the lawsuit, Life asked for an injunction to immediately reinstate the school’s accreditation.

The CCE filed an appeal asking Moye to reverse his decision. Hurst said the next step of the legal process would be for the federal court to grant a date for CCE’s appeal.

DeSpain, who has remained optimistic during the entire process, said he is confident that Life will win the appeal.

“That’s when you will see Life University begin to explode,” he said.

Life still faces a litany of lawsuits against former and current students who are seeking monetary damages for the school’s failure to maintain its chiropractic accreditation.

pgiltman@mdjonline.com