CAMPUS NEWS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
03/01/01

WCCS Delegates Prepare for Conference


MARCH 1, 2001 - Student delegates to the World Congress of Chiropractic Students (WCCS) are looking forward to a week of challenging and productive discussion and planning sessions with their counterparts from around the world at their 2001 conference to be held at MacQuarie University in Sydney, Australia.

The conference will bring together chiropractic students from around the world to discuss current issues and to promote unity within the international chiropractic student community. Delegates from 19 chiropractic colleges will represent the organization’s 17,000 members.

Sherman College traditionally has a strong representation at WCCS conferences, according to tenth-quarter student and four-time WCCS delegate John Claussen. He said the students’ presence has helped improve communication with students of other chiropractic colleges and has given them the opportunity to emphasize the importance of the straight chiropractic philosophy.

In the four years I’ve been involved with WCCS, I’ve noticed a huge positive change in the perception of Sherman College and in the perception of straight chiropractic in general,” he said. “When we have a large group representing Sherman College, we’re able to reach out to all the different schools - and not just with one person’s perspective. Our students talk to about a hundred other delegates. We want to share as much as we can and dispel misconceptions about our college and about straight chiropractic.”

In preparation for the conference, WCCS delegates have been raising funds to finance their trip and gathering information regarding a broad range of current trends and important events related to chiropractic.

Making the trip to the 2001 conference in Australia will require a lot of fund raising, and the students have been doing all they can to raise the money needed to continue sending a large representation of straight chiropractic students.

The delegates have been selling poinsettias, wrapping gifts at Barnes & Noble and selling baked goods on the college campus. They plan to host car washes, organize a restaurant raffle (by selling tickets to give away dinners at local restaurants) and sell seedling trees for Earth Day.

To help the students in their fund-raising efforts, June 2000 Sherman College graduate Paul Jackman, D.C., made a sizable donation - his car.

But this isn’t the first time WCCS delegates have used a car as a “vehicle” for their fund raising. Two years ago, Claussen offered his car for use in fund raising - delegates encouraged their fellow students to decorate the car in exchange for a box-on-the-car donation. Claussen said his colorfully decorated station wagon sparks many conversations in the community. “I’d say it’s the most recognizable car in Spartanburg,” he said. “I can’t tell you how many conversations it has started, and the subject usually turns to chiropractic. It’s like Toastmasters on wheels.”

WCCS delegates have also prepared their proposals for the conference. They are:
- That WCCS request publication space in chiropractic journals to increase the student voice within the profession, inform the chiropractic community of issues pertinent to students and raise awareness of student concerns to practicing chiropractors.
- That presidents and clinic directors of chiropractic colleges support chiropractic interns’ rights to use vertebral subluxation as their clinical assessment.
- That researchers inform the WCCS about their subluxation-centered research (using the Vertebral Subluxation Hypothesis Tree) and that WCCS publish this information to the student population in the form of a newsletter.
- That the National Board of Chiropractic Examiners include sections assessing practitioners’ abilities to assess a non-symptomatic patient for chiropractic care, and that the test reflect the growing emphasis in chiropractic practice for the care of pediatric and newborn practice members.

At the 1999 WCCS conference at Anglo-European Chiropractic College in Bournemouth England, students proposed that the Vertebral Subluxation Hypothesis Tree (developed by Edward Owens, M.S., D.C., director of research at Sherman College) be used as the basis for all future chiropractic research.

That proposal was an innovative and decisive step in bridging the gap between us as future leaders of the profession,” Claussen said. “It gave us a way to work together for a common cause of eliminating nerve interference and contributing to human expression. Our proposal was unanimously accepted. People embraced it, and we’ve seen future chiropractors shift in their perceptions.”

Chiropractic Journal, Dynamic Chiropractic and Today’s Chiropractic have all agreed to print summaries of the WCCS proposals. Claussen says WCCS members hope to receive feedback about the proposals from chiropractors.

2001 WCCS Delegates are: John Claussen, head delegate; Bob Kleckner, treasurer; Renee Perry, secretary; Renee Graziano, Aaron Harchak, Sara Littlefield, Ross McKinney, Susan Senzon and Justin Sheffler.
 

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