Dear Friends,
This month, the College celebrates an historic achievement -- the completion of the Regional Biocontainment Laboratory (RBL), an amazing research facility that will allow us to further our investigations into some of the most important infectious diseases facing the world today, including tuberculosis and the many dangerous diseases spread by mosquitoes and other arthropods. On October 2, we held a ribbon cutting for the new building and the excitement in the air was palpable. Our outstanding research teams are ready to get to work in the new facility.
So many people where involved in the successful completion of the RBL and many were recognized at our ribbon cutting and at other events throughout the day, but I did want to say thank you to one person in particular, Dr. Ralph Smith from the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology. Dr. Smith has been instrumental throughout the RBL project, from initiation, planning and funding, to overseeing construction and facility testing and, finally, commissioning of the building. His tireless efforts helped to bring us to where we are today and we thank him.
In other construction news, we are making excellent progress on our new parking lots on the South Campus. We are now in the process of planning a groundbreaking ceremony for the new Diagnostic Medicine Center, and look forward to finalizing the details so we can invite the campus community to another exciting step towards the College’s future. We also are making steady gains on the expansion and remodeling of the Dean’s Office, with the foundation scheduled for pouring this week to accommodate the expansion. Our goal is to start and/or complete as many of our planned projects as possible in the coming nine months as we prepare for the site visit by the accreditation team from the American Veterinary Medical Association.
As I’ve previously mentioned, the College is now actively preparing the self-study visit document in advance of the April 20-24 site visit by the AVMA. I’d like to thank our faculty members for completing the survey sent out in the latter part of September. Your comments form an important part of the self-study document. We also are required to survey veterinarians in the state of Colorado, for which we used a mailed survey and also interviewed interested veterinarians at the Colorado Veterinary Medical Association’s annual conference in September. I’d like to thank all our dedicated alumni and other Colorado veterinarians who participated. Your comments and suggestions are greatly appreciated
I’d also like to remind everyone about the College’s Fall Faculty and Staff meeting scheduled for Tuesday, October 30, 4:15 p.m., at the Fort Collins Hilton Hotel. We’ll take a look at the “State of the College” and bring everyone up to date on events and activities planned for the coming year. I look forward to seeing everyone there.
Best Regards,
Lance Perryman, DVM, PhD
Dean, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
