USU looks toward professional school on campus
In Utah there is one veterinarian for every 6,000 people, which is why Ken White, department head of animal, dairy and veterinary sciences (ADVS), is thrilled to see Utah’s first professional veterinary school established at USU.
USU administrators are aiming to have the post-undergraduate program ready to accept applications this semester and start classes in the fall of 2011. The program has been made possible by partnering with Washing State University’s (WSU) veterinary school, so students will take their first two years of vet school at USU and the following two at WSU, said associate professor Tom Baldwin, who is also director of the Utah Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory.
“The importance of animal agriculture are driving forces here to establish a center of expertise in veterinary medicine,” Baldwin said. “We have counties in Utah where there are no veterinarians that practice large animal or food animal medicine.”
There will be 20 slots open to pre-veterinary students studying in Utah and 10 for those studying out of Utah, White said.
Facilities, equipment and knowledgeable faculty are already in place at USU, White said, which makes it a prime location for this type of professional school and makes the program less expensive than it would be to create one from the ground up at another Utah school.
Noelle Cockett, dean of the College of Agriculture, said the next step in building this program is securing funding from the Utah legislature, which is currently in process.
“With the ever-increasing costs of professional education, we just place fewer and fewer kids, and that has repercussions down the road,” Baldwin said.
White said six new faculty members will be hired to incorporate their expertise into the program, while at least seven of USU’s current ADVS faculty and staff will be used to teach the program requirements.
“We will be hiring new faculty and staff, but we will be using existing facilities including several at the USU Animal Science Farm and on campus,” Cockett said. “Also, the new agricultural building will have labs and offices used by faculty and students in the program.”
Pre-veterinary majors, such as Dionna Scharton, are excited about the chance this program will give them to be accepted into veterinary school, Scharton said. At Texas A&M in College Station, Texas, the veterinary school makes 15 positions available for out-of-state students, she said, while approximately 85 are left for those in-state.
“We’re an agricultural school; we are sending a lot of students out of state to try and get their veterinary degree,” Scharton said. “This is going to be cheaper and easier in the long run. This is needed. I have no doubt that it will be successful.”
As a mother and wife, Scharton said she is grateful to be able to stay in Cache Valley for veterinary school so she does not have to readjust to a new city and help her daughter adjust to a new school. She said she ultimately hopes to become an antiviral researcher for large farm animals. This interest was sparked when she tried to revive an Iraqi farmer’s sheep after they were shot during her military service as a lab technician.
“We basically took some picnic tables, laid out some sheets and cloths to try and save them and we actually did save one of them,” Scharton said.
Currently, there are approximately 150 pre-veterinary students at USU, White said, and last year nine of 11 veterinary school applicants were accepted.
“If we didn’t have mature kids with a vision and commitment, it might have been harder to convince them (WSU) to do partner with us,” Baldwin said. “I don’t know if Washington State would be interested in this program if it was coming from somewhere else. This speaks very highly of our citizenry.”
WSU wants to admit students who have the academic background to complete the rigors of the program, Baldwin said, and Utah students do very well academically, but also have the necessary level of maturity. They have the ability to “handle stress with grace,” he said.
Baldwin said though USU pre-veterinary students are held in high regard at many veterinary schools, due to students’ finances, it is increasingly difficult to make veterinary school a reality. The Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) helps pay for fewer and fewer students’ professional veterinary education, Baldwin said. While Baldwin received help from WICHE grants to get him through veterinary school, these grants are now harder to come by than ever, which discourages many students from applying. He said the number of WICHE grants allotted in one year to USU students is now around five, and used to be double that number.
“Just the fact that I will only have to be paying in-state fees, I won’t be finding a new place to live or a new deposit makes this whole thing that much better,” Scharton said. “It’s nice, too, because Logan is a pretty inexpensive place to live.”
Cockett said she sees no negative aspects to USU adopting this program.
White said, “It will certainly enhance our college and department. It will strengthen it, provide more resources, provide more classes and this will be the first professional school we have on campus.” As a result of the upcoming veterinary program, Baldwin said he hopes to see more general and specialist veterinarians practicing in Utah, because as of now, the number of experts in animal care are not sufficient to the number of animals that may need attention.
“Do we have access to an animal cardiologist? Radiologist? The list goes on and on just like it would in human medicine,” Baldwin said.
–catherine.meidell@aggiemail.usu.edu