VET SCHOOL AT TECH PRIMING FOR GROWTH
0 Comments | Roanoke Times & World News, Jun 11, 2009 | by Greg Esposito
Since its first class of 80 students in 1980, the Virginia- Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine has been churning out veterinarians at a steady rate.
The college opened up 10 seats for out-of-state students in 1995, and next year’s class will offer an additional five seats. College spokesman Jeff Douglas calls it “a modest but important step forward.”
But there’s nothing modest about the vet school’s future aspirations. If all goes according to plan, there could be expansion projects totaling 48,300 square feet and $22.3 million under way next year, followed by the construction of a 130,000-square-foot, $76 million translational medicine facility in about five years.
The expansion is a response to a national shortage of veterinarians, particularly outside the traditional companion animal practice. Veterinarians have been in growing demand in fields such as bioterrorism, food safety and infectious disease, but the number graduating each year has remained at about 2,500 for several years.
There are fewer than 100,000 veterinarians in the country — including retired vets and those working for the military, in research and for the government, said Mike Chaddock, associate executive director of the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges.
“You can take all the veterinarians in the country and we will not fill a large football stadium,” he said.
A U.S. Government Accountability Office report this year outlined the shortage and how it could affect attempts to prevent the spread of zoonotic diseases, such as avian or swine influenza. Another study is being conducted by the National Academy of Sciences National Research Council.
Marguerite Pappaioanou, executive director of the AAVMC, said many colleges would like to expand but just don’t have the room. That could change with stimulus funds and health care reform. The importance of veterinarians to preventive health is underappreciated, she said.
“There are plans that have been made, blueprints, we are ready to roll,” she said. “It’s just looking for that federal investment.”
The three projects at the Virginia-Maryland vet school are all planned for the college’s main campus at Virginia Tech. They will allow for more research and faculty space while possibly accommodating enrollment growth of nearly 40 percent. The college’s expansion is something its leaders have been considering for about a decade and a goal Gerhardt Schurig has been aware of since he became dean six years ago.
“Over the last several years it has become nationally known that the veterinary schools need to train new students,” Schurig said. “One problem with that is the majority of schools, including us, don’t really have the facilities to produce that.”
That will change with the construction of a 16,000-square-foot infectious disease research facility and a 32,300-square-foot instructional building next year.
Construction of the $10.2 million research building next spring will be supported by state funding and, hopefully, a grant from the National Institutes of Health, Schurig said. The college had applied for NIH funding for the project before, but money was not available, despite a positive review of the project. With $10.4 billion in federal money flowing to NIH as part of the federal stimulus package, the college is hopeful the grant will come through this year, Douglas said.
Funding for the instructional building is not as far along, but Schurig said he hopes private contributions will allow construction to begin in fall 2010, with plans for it to be used in the 2012-13 school year. In addition to providing more class space, the 32,300- square-foot building would expand facilities to help the college attract and retain faculty.
The enrollment expansion would be gradual, Schurig said, and he said he is not sure exactly what students would fill the new seats
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