Dr. Lance Perryman

Dear Friends,

Earlier this month I had the pleasure of attending the annual 1870 Dinner in honor of Colorado State University’s donor community. It’s always a special event, but this year the dinner was even more extraordinary, ending in a cacophony of noise and brilliantly colored fireworks. The reason for this exceptional celebration? On Friday, Feb. 3, a day before the 1870 dinner, CSU announced that it had reached its ambitious $500 million goal for the University’s first-ever comprehensive campaign, six months ahead of the planned end date.

 The College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences was an integral part of the Campaign for Colorado State University, raising $126.5 million during the last seven years. Thank you to all of our donors who made this historic campaign possible. Your generosity is helping to fund scholarships, create endowed faculty chairs, provide assistance to animals in need, develop innovative programs, construct new buildings, and so much more. Again, thank you for your investment in our College, and in our faculty and students. Much of what we do would not be possible without your continued support.

In other events, this month, on Feb. 18, I’ll be attending the second meeting of the Consortium of Western Regional Colleges of Veterinary Medicine with Drs. Pete Hellyer and Sue VandeWoude. The consortium was formally created in October 2011 to provide a mechanism for effective collaboration among veterinary schools to advance initiatives important to the veterinary profession. I look forward to meeting once again with the consortium’s founding deans as we move toward our first goal of strong and continued faculty development to promote rich and innovative learning environments.

On Feb. 19-23, I’ll be attending the 84th Annual Western Veterinary Conference in Las Vegas along with many of our faculty members and a number of our veterinary students. Nathan Meyer, one of our DVM/MBA students, will attend the conference as the Western Veterinary Scholarship recipient from Colorado State University. All scholarships recipients will be honored at a breakfast during the conference, and I look forward to attending that event with Nathan. The College also will hold a reception for our alumni and this promises to be a great opportunity to reconnect with many of our graduates.

Last month, the College held its 13th Annual CVMBS Research Day and I’m pleased to note that it was a very successful event. I’d like to thank Drs. Sue VandeWoude and Dawn Duval who organized and moderated the event, and the volunteers who helped make it run smoothly. Each year that I attend this event, I am always amazed at the intelligence, talent, dedication, and professionalism of our students. It was inspiring to learn more about their research work as well as their dreams and planned careers. I think our future as a nation and as a society is in good hands.

In other news, we are in the process of interviewing candidates for the position of Executive Director of Development and hope to have an announcement in March or April, once that position is filled. I also continue to work with the College’s “Dean-Elect,” Dr. Mark Stetter, as he prepares for his arrival at Colorado State University in May in preparation for taking over leadership of the College in July.

In anticipation of our numerous spring events both on and off campus (check out the CVMBS News and Notes for information on a few of our upcoming calendar items), I look forward to seeing many of you at our College activities during the next few months.

Best Regards,

Lance Perryman, DVM, PhD
Dean, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences