Oklahoma State University has been asking state lawmakers for a $295 million appropriation to help build a new veterinary teaching hospital to replace the 40-year-old facility currently being used, which was one concern that caused the College of Veterinary Medicine to be placed on probation this past fall. The good news on that is that in March, the American Veterinary Medical Association upgraded OSU-CVM to “accredited status for up to the remainder of this accreditation term.” However, the University understood that continued accreditation depends upon the success of this critical funding initiative.
In addition to enhancing the university’s standings, the funding will help with the rural large and food animal veterinarian shortage in Oklahoma.
Governor Kevin Stitt and the Oklahoma legislature have reached a deal to provide $250 million for the construction project, adding to the $78 million appropriated by the state in 2023.
Steve Thompson, Director of Public Policy for the OSU A&M Board of Regents, stated, “We are very pleased. As I understand, it will be the largest state appropriation in OSU history.”
Recently, Oklahoma Ag Secretary Blayne Arthur assembled the Oklahoma Veterinary Shortage Summit, held at the HAMM Institute, composed of producers, veterinarians, practitioners, and other stakeholders to discuss how to help with the vet shortage.
Todd Greenwood of the Farm Journal Foundation presented the findings of a recent assessment on the critical inflection point of the veterinary workforce in rural Oklahoma. He outlined the dire situation in the state by highlighting that 630 large animal or mixed practice veterinarians will become eligible to retire in the next ten years. By contrast, only 240 veterinary students are projected to enter large or mixed animal practices during that same period.
The Farm Journal Foundation is working with the state and the university to identify places in the veterinary workforce pipeline that could be improved, from high schools onward. Greenwood is encouraged by the state’s willingness to ask the questions and pursue solutions.
“This state is ahead of many. I want to commend everybody here for that,” he said. “We find that within the four categories of the workforce pipeline – from high school students to undergraduate pre-vet students, veterinary students, and early practitioners – there are critical decisions they have to make to cross into each of those phases. There are good programs in each of those phases, but there are very few bridges across for them to follow.”
The money committed by the state to construct a new state-of-the-art facility reflects a commitment to recruiting high-quality faculty members and students from across the state and beyond. The University’s President, Jim Hess, shared, “Our focus is on trying to attract people from rural Oklahoma, train them, and get them back to rural Oklahoma. We take that mission very seriously. Part of our legislative efforts in the past have been to provide scholarships for students who will commit to practicing large animal or food animal veterinary medicine in a rural area.”
OSU awarded eight such scholarships through the Lee Denny Scholarship program last fall and has more to give next fall, thanks to a legislative increase from $600K to $1.2 million in appropriated funding. Hess expressed appreciation for Oklahoma’s legislators for the ability to provide those scholarships, saying, “It is absolutely critical for a rural veterinarian to not have much debt.”
All involved in the effort to build a new teaching hospital and provide scholarships hope to keep adequate numbers of veterinarians in the countryside willing to care for large and food animals in rural communities.
Thompson detailed other ways the state is helping, “We received around $2 million for the third year of a three-year, planned funding ramp-up to increase faculty specialists. We had been asking for $5 million recurring to change the numbers, as far as in-state versus out-of-state students. Currently, it is 58 in-state and 48 out-of-state, mainly because we needed the revenue that came along with our out-of-state tuition. We ended up receiving $1.3 million for that, so we will be able to increase the in-state student population. Overall, it’s been a really good year.”
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