Less income from states, teaching hospitals, private sector spells cutbacks
The recession’s impact on veterinary schools and colleges can be seen in what isn’t on those campuses. Mothballed teaching positions, delayed building projects and equipment purchases, and smaller endowments plague just about every institution, officials say. All this after many of them were required to return portions of state funding midyear and before they have had a chance to deal with the dramatic cuts expected for this coming fiscal year’s budget.
Dr. H. Michael Chaddock, deputy executive director of the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges, said every veterinary college has been affected to some degree.
“The majority of them are state-funded institutions. Really, today, that is a misnomer. They’re not state-funded but state-assisted,” he said.
State funding accounts for 10 percent to 40 percent of veterinary colleges’ budgets. The percentage has steadily decreased for the past decade, Dr. Chaddock said, forcing veterinary colleges to rely more on increased tuition or teaching hospital fees, private donations, grants, and research funding from the private sector. He says this also has caused institutions to be run increasingly like businesses.
“Deans operate more as a CEO, now. Certainly any dean would tell you more of his or her time is spent on economic issues, fundraising, and development,” Dr. Chaddock said. “There are only 24 hours in a day, so whatever increased time the dean or associate dean is spending in those areas, that’s time taken away from academics, research programs, and collaboration.”
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