A doctoral program in acupuncture?!

Yours truly recently read an article on PCOM’s website, titled:  Pacific College’s Doctoral Program gets Glowing Reviews in First Semester (link:  https://www.pacificcollege.edu/acupuncture-massage-news/articles/591-pacific-colleges-doctoral-program-gets-glowing-reviews-in-first-semester.html).  A doctoral program in acupuncture? ? ?  I’ve never even heard of such a thing in China, where acupuncture originated.  This must be something incredible, amazing and wonderful all rolled into one!  I’m going to put on my thinking cap and go over this with you.  Maybe it’s worth $32,000 of additional [worthless] debt.

Ok, so the article starts off with praise on how excited students are about the program and how skilled and versatile they are.  Then they interview Greg Sperber, MSTOM PCOM ’97, who is one of the first students in the program.

Greg who?

Greg Sperber, you know, the former president of California State Oriental Medicine Association (CSOMA).

Why should I know him?

Oh, there was an article about his lame response to very serious allegations of financial improprieties way back when in Acupuncture Today:  http://www.acupuncturetoday.com/CSOMA/

What makes you say his response was lame?

Check out the letter he wrote:  http://www.acupuncturetoday.com/CSOMA/CSOMA_ATQuestions_060623.pdf

Getting back to the topic at hand…

Ok, ok.  So, Greg Sperber says that the MSTOM doctoral holders will have more clout with the FDA.

HAHHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!

Maybe Robin Tiberi, PCOM ’95, is a more credible interviewee.   According to her, she feels like she can communicate with anyone about Chinese medicine.

Robin needs to pay $32K for a doctorate degree on top of her Masters before she feels confident enough to speak about Chinese medicine?  This is a really sad woman.

Jack Miller, the President of Pacific College is also interviewed.

Well, honestly, what’s he going to say other than rub his hands together that PCOM will be earning MORE money from these suckers and charlatans?  It would have been more credible to interview people from the FDA to confirm/deny Greg Sperber’s hyperbolic statements.

After reading the article, there’s not a lot of critical thinking that goes into introducing the doctoral program.  What did these people really learn for $32K?  How much did it improve their income?  Do patients really lean towards doctoral degree holders vs. regular acupuncturists?

The Finale: The PCOM American Cancer Society Fundraiser

Welcome back!

Recap:  On Sunday, July 24, 2011, the PCOM student council held a talent show to benefit the American Cancer Society.  Prior to this, I expressed my opinion as to how, based on the way things were run at the last show, the 7/24/11 show could be improved.  I was criticized by Jason Morris for questioning the way things were run.

So, a week has gone by now and there has been radio silence as to how much was raised for the American Cancer Society.  Why is this?

• The Chernuchin Theater, capable of seating 140, sat about 20-25 people that evening.  The theater rental was $600, paid for by student council budget funds.  At $25-$30 per ticket…well, you can do the math.  Keep in mind that about HALF of the audience consisted of performers waiting to go onstage .
• There was a heat wave going on (there was a high of 91 and a low of 78 on Sunday) and there was no air conditioning.  At $25 per ticket, shouldn’t the basics be covered?

• The show lasted over 3 hours…with no A/C.

Personal musing:  The goal of raising money for cancer is, of and in itself, noble.  What’s not noble is if the reason behind it is to feed an ego or to falsely raise the stature of PCOM by diverting student council money.  Perhaps in the future, rather than using $600 for a theater rental, the money could be spent funding snacks and small goody treat bags for all students prior to midterms, finals and comps.

Katie Tintz’s response when I followed up on Jason Morris’s suggestion

So, I followed up on Jason Morris and Julie Cho’s suggestion that I contact Katie Tintz if I were curious about the student council budget.  They assured me that it was an open book and would be happy to shed light on matters.  Ready for the response?

Katie Tintz:

show details Jun 19

I’m sorry but excuse me? What could you possibly want with our budget? I don’t even have access to it unless I’m on campus and go to see the people in charge. Our budget should be of no concern to anyone. We share with everyone what we spend the student council money on and you can see it – the break room renovation, luncheons, comps review sessions, the benefit show, karaoke nights and bringing in people to do lectures, etc. And from what I know you are no longer a student, so Im not sure of your interest. If this is a major concern for you I welcome questions and I urge you to contact Gina if you think there are shady business practices going on

Katie Tintz

I also do not appreciate the things that were written on Facebook yesterday degrading the work and intention behind the show in November. I find it abhorrable that you would question our motives, especially in a place as public as Facebook.
– Show quoted text –

See below for 3 examples of major schools who have NO PROBLEMS publishing their budgets:

Click to access USG-budget-2011-20122.pdf

Click to access 2010-2011%20budget.pdf

http://facu.columbia.edu/

The background to these posts

About a month ago, the following Facebook dialogue occurred:

Me:           My 2 cents on raising money for a good cause:

1.  Don’t charge performers an admission fee to perform/get in the door.  It’s not classy (just my opinion).  This is my recollection of what happened during the last PCOM fundraising event.
2. Transparent bookkeeping:  Publicly post the # of attendees, # of tickets sold and the names and responsibilities of the people in charge of accounting and auditing.

PCOM NY:

this is honestly outrageous, soo.  you have no idea how hard jason has been working to secure broadway-caliber talent to provide an amazing evening for everyone…just for you to trash it on your profile.  it is extremely compelling that you won’t talk with council, that you prefer to angrily rant about practices you know nothing about.  had any of your questions been brought to an info session, a forum, or just even mentioned to a member of council or admin, you would have had immediate answers and documentation.  this is maliciious and honestly hard to believe of a grad student studying healing medicine.  please delete this post.

Me:  

I don’t understand why you’re taking my postings so personally — I am posting my thoughts on best practices for fundraising.  If  you have info. on the budget or contradicting facts, please publicly post.

 As for my sources, here’s the identity:  my own two eyes.  I have this memory of standing in line, waiting to get into the student talent show.  A few dancers entered and the two people at the door said that they had to pay $15 — even if they were performers.  One of the dancers I recall being charged was the salsa dancer.  There were also the Korean drummers.

Julie Cho (an acupuncture student and the person whom I initially had this dialogue with):

:

Know your facts before postig these.  Email ktintz@gmail.com.  I still love you.

Me:

Well, I’m not going to e-mail student council nor join but I will share my thoughts when the subject is brought up.  I question how much of the proceeds is ultimately going to the American Cancer Society if the venue rental is high enough to justify $25/ticket from struggling students though!

Also, $25 is really steep for struggling PCOM students.  Possibly set student ticket sales as ‘voluntary donation suggested’.  Again, just my humble 2 cents.

Julie!!!  Another brilliant idea from yours truly:  there should be transparency for the accounting of the fundraising!  The info should be posted on the PCOM Facebook page for all to see!

You can see that none of these postings can be deemed ‘vicious’ or mean-spirited.  The points I made were to improve the accessibility of a talent show to the entire student body and to encourage fiscal transparency.  In response, my character and integrity were challenged — PCOM NY and a PCOM student denied that performers were charged admission and accused me of trashing them.