The following is a statement of educational principles held by the Palmer Chiropractic University System, including Palmer College of Chiropractic, Palmer College of Chiropractic West and Palmer College of Chiropractic Florida. The Palmer colleges recognize the need to maintain an optimum learning environment through a sustained commitment to excellence and continual improvement. The following tenets reconfirm Palmer's role as an innovative, dynamic and exciting community of diverse learners and scholars.

1. The Palmer colleges embrace the philosophy espoused in the Palmer Chiropractic Tenets. This philosophy holds that life is intelligent and that the human body possesses an inherent potential to maintain itself in a natural state of homeostasis through its innate/inborn intelligence. Moreover, the science of chiropractic emphasizes the relationship between structure and function, primarily that between the spinal column and the nervous system. Implicit within this statement is the significance of the nervous system to health and the effect of the subluxation complex upon the nervous system and, therefore, the body.
   
   
2. The Palmer colleges are learning communities. They are dedicated to developing, sustaining and refining a vertically and horizontally integrated chirocentric curriculum where excellence in teaching and learning is realized throughout the course work and the clinical experience. As premier institutions of chiropractic education, the Palmer colleges are dedicated to offering students an exceptional education through a curriculum that is dynamic in nature. The Palmer colleges encourage students to be health care professionals who make a difference in the community and in the world because they have learned to observe, think, question, imagine, serve and speak out based on the ethics they embrace and the education they have acquired. The Palmer colleges exist to serve students and to promote student growth and development.
   
   
3. The Palmer colleges encourage their students to become lifelong learners. Engaging campus cultures are maintained through student interactions with administrators, faculty, staff and alumni exposing students to the excitement of learning and discovery. Through persistent professional leadership and competency development, students learn to appreciate and understand the complexity and diversity of human communities and the world in which we live and work. As Doctors of Chiropractic, they will have high expectations of their own efforts and they will see learning as extending far beyond the classroom and clinic to their life responsibilities as health care professionals living in their communities. The colleges are dedicated to teaching students how to learn.
   
   
4. The Palmer colleges expect faculty to be effective teachers, productive scholars and focused academicians. Further, it is recognized that the three are inextricably intertwined. Effective teaching over a lifetime career can only be maintained through productive scholarship. In its various forms, scholarship enhances excellence in the classroom and the clinic. Focused academicians, demonstrating mastery of a chosen field, inspire student learning. At Palmer, it is requisite that faculty are competent academicians and that they pursue teaching as one type of scholarship. Having creative scholars who teach and teachers who are creative scholars produces a special understanding by faculty and students of knowledge and its creation, and fosters a learning atmosphere that is unique in chiropractic education.
   
   
5. The Palmer colleges are committed to developing the finest chiropractic clinicians. Students, through mentoring and compassionate health care, are encouraged to focus on wellness promotion, health assessment, diagnosis and the chiropractic management of the patient's health care needs. Palmer succeeds as its graduates are inspired by a broader vision using the knowledge and abilities they have acquired to form values and to serve the common good. Students train their minds, sensibilities and abilities for a lifetime responsibility of critical, independent thought and commitment to personal, professional and community service goals.
   
   
6. The Palmer colleges are committed to the advancement of the chiropractic profession. The colleges' community of administrators, faculty, staff, alumni and students are encouraged to communicate and collaborate with others in the profession. The exchange of ideas and synergistic effect of collaborations will lead to greater accomplishments for the profession than would be possible through individual efforts. The colleges are dedicated to advancing awareness and appreciation of chiropractic and chiropractic education throughout the world by the most efficient and effective means.
   
   
7. The Palmer colleges are dedicated to the welfare and success of their students. Through the Palmer learning experience, students are prepared to develop and refine:
   
   • Lifelong learning skills and habits;
   • Critical thinking skills;
   • Written, verbal and listening communication skills;
   • Leadership qualities and management skills;
   • A sense of service to patients, the profession and the community;
   • A consistent application of ethics in their practice of chiropractic'
   • An ability to make substantive contributions to the interdisciplinary health care environment;
   • An ability to make a contribution to the development of a rational system of "wellness" health care;
   • An ability to apply evidence-based reasoning in determining the needs of their patients; and
   • An ability to be successful in current and emerging business management and reimbursement systems.