The Los Angeles College of Chiropractic (LACC), chartered in 1911 by Dr. Charles Cale, is now part of the Southern California University of Health Sciences.
LACC's 38-acre campus in Whittier, where the college has been located since 1981, will also house the school's new College of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine.
The College of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, which will offer a master's degree, is scheduled to open in January 2001. Dr. Wen-Shuo Wu is the associate dean of the new program (see "LACC Branches Out," DC, Aug. 24, 2000 or on line at http://www.chiroweb.com/archives/18/16/20.html).
"Last June our board of regents took a bold step and voted to diversify our curriculum," explained Dr. Reed Phillips, president of LACC since February 1992 and now president of SCUHS.
Dr. Phillips noted that patients are looking to chiropractors as "their primary care providers for a more natural approach to their wellness." He also observed that as LACC graduates are enhancing their practices with other therapies, including acupuncture, that it made sense to make acupuncture available from their alma mater.
"For almost 90 years now we've been the big unknown in Southern California," Dr. Phillips observed. One of the reasons for that is that the Whittier campus is located in a residential neighborhood and, as Dr. Phillips points out, "(we) don't draw attention to ourselves like other institutions." But Dr. Phillips believes that will change. "With our new university status and the role we're playing in the future success of alternative health care, I suspect our low-profile days are over."
The Los Angeles College of Chiropractic has graduated approximately 6,000 doctors and has just welcomed a new class of 112 students. The college currently has 630 students studying to become doctors of chiropractic. The college has also been operating three health care centers, a new $3 million facility on the Whittier campus, and clinics in Pasadena and Glendale. As with the college, the clinics will now be under the auspices of the university.
