12/4/95

By Sam Hendrix, 334/844-3698

INSUFFICIENT STATE FUNDING HAMPERS AU VETERINARY COLLEGE

AUBURN -- Lack of adequate state funding to improve facilities has cost Auburn University's College of Veterinary Medicine its full accreditation, interim Dean Tim Boosinger announced Monday.

An accreditation committee of the American Veterinary Medical Association, which spent three days on campus earlier this year, has reduced the 103-year-old program's accreditation to a limited or probationary status for the next five years. The primary reason: AU has insufficient funds to update North America's oldest large animal clinic.

"We were commended highly on our teaching, research and outreach programs, as well as on the quality of our faculty and the professional nature of our students, but we were cited for having inadequate physical facilities in our Large Animal Clinic," said Boosinger. "This has no immediate detrimental impact on our students and faculty, but we simply must find resources to upgrade aging, outmoded facilities and recover the status of full accreditation in the time allotted."

Specifically, the committee report cited the lack of a large animal isolation facility to contain animals that may have communicable diseases. The group of temporary, segregated stalls AU has been using for this purpose was deemed inadequate by the committee. The report also cited a lack of space in several other areas of the college.

"In a sense, we were criticized because we've been progressive and have simply outgrown aging facilities," Boosinger said.

The limited accreditation has no immediate impact on academic programs, but if the shortcomings are not resolved within five years and full accreditation is not restored, AU veterinary graduates could be barred from sitting for state license exams and much of Auburn's veterinary research funding could be in jeopardy.

Auburn's Large Animal Clinic was the most modern among North AmericaÕs 31 veterinary schools when it was built in the early 1960s, but the clinic has had little renovation or upgrading since then, primarily because of the lack of available funding. The college's master plan -- approved by AU's Board of Trustees - - has called for a modern large animal clinic since 1988, but AU has not had the resources to build it.

"For the past 30 years, we've produced around 60 percent of all new construction and renovation money from gifts and generated income, with 34 percent coming from federal resources and only 6 percent from the state," Boosinger said. "We need perhaps $30 million for a state-of-the art large animal clinic, but this college has had basically no capital funding from state appropriations for over 25 years."

Auburn's Large Animal Clinic consists of a single-story brick, concrete and cinder block building, 10 barns, three laboratories, faculty offices and 120 acres of adjacent pasture two miles from the main AU campus.

Veterinary students and faculty members treat, study and conduct research on the clinic's more than 130 horses, beef and dairy cattle, sheep, llamas, pigs and goats. More than 83,000 injured or ailing animals from throughout the Southeast have been treated in the Large Animal Clinic over the past five years.

The clinic is renowned for its expertise in breeding soundness and reproductive physiology in cattle, and a new facility would sustain this important service to external constituents, said Boosinger.

Two additional privately funded buildings set to open early next year will be used for equine reproduction research.

AU veterinary research on various aspects of animal health benefits Alabama's $7.5 billion poultry industry, the state's $600 million equine industry, the nation's 13th largest beef cattle industry and the country's 23rd most productive swine industry.

Auburn's College of Veterinary Medicine is the nation's seventh oldest and has graduated 4,774 veterinarians since its first doctoral degrees were awarded in 1909. Its graduates have held national positions of leadership at all levels within the profession, government and industry. More than 350 future veterinarians are enrolled in the four-year professional program at any one time.

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CONTACT: Boosinger, 334/844-3694.