DAVENPORT, IOWA - Palmer College of Chiropractic has been awarded a $1.7 million federal grant to assist in a major expansion of library and learning resource facilities on its Davenport campus. The grant was included in the final version of the Senate Labor, Health and Human Services (LHHS) Appropriations bill, which provides funds for the departments of Labor, Education, and Health and Human Services. U.S. Senator Tom Harkin secured the funds as the ranking member on the LHHS appropriations subcommittee.
Chancellor Michael Crawford praised the efforts of his administrative team, especially Gary Mohr, the Palmer executive director of community and government relations, for acquiring the $3 million in federal funding.
"There are 20 million Americans receiving chiropractic care, with half a million of those patients in Iowa," said Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA). "I am pleased that I was able to secure funding for expansion of this important Iowa institution."
This marks the second major federal allocation for Palmer in recent months. In October 2000, the Palmer University was awarded a facilities construction grant for $1.3 million from the National Center for Research Resources, a division of the U.S. National Institutes of Health. (See "Palmer Receives a $1.3 Million Construction Grant" in our November 15, 2000 issue, or on line at www.ChiroWeb.com/archives/18/24/17.html.) The $1.3-million award is to be matched by Palmer.
Palmer will use the grant, coupled with money from an upcoming capital campaign, to produce a state-of-the-art library and learning resources facility serving not only the college, but also the chiropractic profession and other health care and educational communities.
"To our knowledge, this is the first time this level of funding has been specifically earmarked by Congress for a chiropractic college facility in the history of the profession," said Michael Crawford, chancellor of Palmer University.
Mr. Crawford praised the efforts of his administrative team, especially Gary Mohr, the Palmer's executive director of community and government relations, for acquiring the $3 million in federal funding.
Palmer President Guy Riekeman,DC, said that the funding signals Palmer's ability to expand despite "tough markets right now in both health care and education. Because of demographics, the economy and other factors, enrollment in graduate schools is down, and, in a sense, the market is contracting. The fact that Palmer can move forward says a lot about the credibility of this institution and the extent of its resources, including the support of its 18,000 alumni."
Dr. Riekeman noted that the learning resource center on the campus will include a library; conference center; chiropractic research data center; federal document depository; distance learning center; visitor orientation center; chiropractic archives and special collections; and scholarly research spaces for faculty.
"The benefits of this new facility to Palmer, the community and the chiropractic profession will be enormous," Dr. Riekeman added. "This will be the world's largest, most advanced space for chiropractic learning, and it will be a link to Palmer College of Chiropractic West in San Jose, California., and our future campus in Port Orange, Florida. The learning center will connect our 18,000 alumni with the tremendous chiropractic resources available at Palmer, and it will be a high-tech link between Palmer College and the health care network of hospitals and health care research facilities in Iowa and Illinois. This facility will help provide better patient care by allowing practitioners to consult on difficult cases and conduct collaborative, scholarly research."
Plans for the library and learning resource center are being developed; a timeline for construction has not yet been determined.
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