Update from the Dean's Office
Summer typically offers a bit of a slower pace at the University. It's
a time to catch up on paperwork and projects, plan for the year ahead,
travel to conferences, and do a lot of much needed repair and renovation.
Here is a taste of what is happening as we enter the month of July.
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The budget continues to be an overarching issue for the State and
the University. However, we believe we have seen the majority of the
cuts for fiscal year 2004. With the economy still sputtering, however,
we most likely will have to begin this fall to look at additional
permanent cuts for the next fiscal year (2005) starting in July 2004.
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As part of the budget cuts for 2004, the Dentistry Service has been
eliminated at the James L. Voss Veterinary Teaching Hospital. Previously,
the Dentistry Service was staffed by a special appointment faculty
member and 1.5 FTE veterinary technicians. The caseload was maintained
by substantial financial subsidization for instructional purposes,
so that approximately one-third of all services costs were charged
to teaching. The decision to cut the Dentistry Service was made with
regards to three major factors: significant horizontal cuts in the
budgets of all VTH services have already been made; dentistry is a
small, costly service difficult to maintain as a stand-alone in the
face of continued budget cuts; and, routine dental care can be performed
by the Community Practice Service (a required track for all small
animal seniors) with more complicated oral surgery performed by the
Surgery Service. Students will still receive vital dentistry training
and clients will still have dentistry care available for their animals
at the hospital. The main loss in service is the ability for the hospital
to offer dental reconstructive surgery. We hope to eventually restore
a stand-alone Dentistry Service -- along with the ability to perform
more complex dental procedures -- when our budget situation improves.
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We have a pretty good idea of numbers for the incoming Professional
Veterinary Medical Program students. We will have a total of 134 students
with 75 Colorado students, 33 or 34 WICHE students, and 25 or 26 non-sponsored
students. Annual tuition and fees for this academic year for sponsored
students (Colorado resident and WICHE students) is $10,943.40. For
non-sponsored students the cost of tuition and fees is $34,443.40.
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As part of my desire to keep in touch with the practicing veterinary
community, in the last month I have been out to Sterling to visit
with a veterinarian there, and hosted a veterinarian from Aurora here.
I'm learning about what these veterinarians are experiencing in their
daily practice, as well as what they feel students need to be successful
practitioners. I hope to keep visiting veterinarians throughout the
state to gain from their experiences and use their suggestions to
continually improve our teaching programs.
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We now have two more of our leadership team on campus. Welcome to
Dr. David Lee, director of the James L. Voss Veterinary Teaching Hospital,
and to Dr. John Zimbrick, head of the Department of Environmental
and Radiological Health Sciences. We are still awaiting the arrival
of Dr. Paul Lunn, head of the Department of Clinical Sciences, and
Dr. Jeffrey Wilusz, head of the Department of Microbiology, Immunology
and Pathology. They will be arriving on campus in August.
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The next time you are in the James L. Voss Veterinary Teaching Hospital,
check out the renovations to the waiting area. The waiting area, with
its circa 1970s furniture, was in bad need of repairs and updating.
Clients and their animals will feel welcome and comfortable in the
new waiting area which features new furnishings, work sites for those
waiting while their pets undergo procedures, and more.
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