Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 4, 1990 TAG: 9004030519
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-13 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DR. PETER EYRE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Like many new and innovative enterprises, the college has contended with some well-publicized fiscal challenges during its start-up years. But of far more importance, it has risen to national prominence for something it is uniquely qualified to do.
As dean of this promising institution in its 10th anniversary, I am pleased by this opportunity to report to the people of Virginia and Maryland about the status of the regional veterinary college.
When considering the college's achievements during its first 10 years, it is useful to reflect upon some of the changes which have occurred in the profession itself over the past century.
In the early 1900s, veterinarians were often characterized as burley-armed "horse-doctors" who would become obsolete when the first clanking Stanley-Steamers chugged off the assembly line.
Gradually, as pets became more accepted as members of the family, veterinarians emerged as the "gentle doctors," kindly healers perhaps best exemplified in James Herriot's "All Creatures Great and Small" or in the famous Norman Rockwell painting of a Saturday morning at the vet's in Anytown, U.S.A.
Veterinarians still care for horses, farm animals and pets. But today's veterinarian does much, much more.
Today's veterinarian is more likely than not female (69 percent of the students enrolled in our college are women); is better educated (more veterinarians are pursuing specialty certification than ever before); may well choose to work in a government or corporate laboratory instead of a neighborhood practice (the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics projects significant growth in this area); and treats animal health problems with a marvelously sophisticated assortment of diagnostic and therapeutic equipment (life in a veterinary teaching hospital looks like that in a major human medical center).
In recognition of the changing role of veterinary medicine in our society, the Pew Memorial Trusts of Pennsylvania began a $5 million nationwide program in 1986 intended to strengthen the veterinary profession.
In addition to funding a landmark study on the status of the profession and sending hundreds of top veterinary officials from across the nation to a leadership development institute at Duke University, the Pew Project challenged the nation's 27 veterinary colleges to develop strategic plans for the future, and provided $3 million to fund them, on a competitive basis.
I am pleased that the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine has been awarded a $200,000 grant from the Pew Memorial Trusts to develop a national veterinary training Center for Government and Corporate Veterinary Medicine. It was the largest award made to a single institution.
Capitalizing on our college's unique training relationships with government institutions such as NIH, USDA, FDA and others in the metropolitan Washington, D.C., area, and refining our educational activities in corporate veterinary medicine, our plan is to create a national training program for veterinary students wishing to prepare for careers in what experts say will be the fastest growing area of the profession in the '90s and in the 21st century.
These future veterinarians will work side by side with physicians in biomedical research laboratories developing cures for human and animal diseases, and with agricultural scientists in helping to produce and maintain the safest, most abundant food supply in the world.
It is an important step for the profession and for the society it serves. And it is a tremendous benchmark for us. This recognition affirms that the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine has "arrived" as a nationally regarded institution.
The $200,000 Pew Award was a fitting cap for a decade of progress that began and ended with vigorous momentum.
In 1980, we opened our first buildings on the campus of Virginia Tech and accepted our first class of veterinary students.
In late 1989, a new operating agreement was signed between Virginia Tech and the University of Maryland which significantly enhanced the regional partnership. Also, the new $12.5 million Avrum Gudelsky Veterinary Center was occupied at College Park.
A minority recruitment program was created, and on our Virginia Tech campus, work began on more than $1 million in new construction projects.
In Leesburg, our Marion duPont Scott Equine Medical Center, an institution already credited with making a $116 million economic contribution to the regional horse industry, continued to prepare for the challenges of serving Virginia's new pari-mutuel racing industry.
And during those years in between, we trained almost 500 veterinarians, established a $3 million research program, and treated hundreds of thousands of farm animals and pets.
We are proud of what has been accomplished. And on behalf of the people and animals we serve, we pledge ourselves to even higher levels of performance in the future.
by CNB