By Tonya S. Grace
Kentucky New Era
The time to try again is now, said Jordan Smith, Executive Director of Government and Institutional Relations at Murray State University, as he spoke recently to magistrates of the Trigg County Fiscal Court about establishing a veterinary school on the MSU campus.
“Now is probably the best chance we’ll ever have to do this,” Smith told the court on Dec. 18.
The western Kentucky campus is seeking funding from the Kentucky General Assembly to build a school of veterinary medicine that would be a first in the state, and officials are garnering support from fiscal courts in the region.
Legislators meet again beginning Tuesday.
Jordan Smith of Murray State University speaks recently to county officials. (Photo by Tonya S. Grace, via Kentucky Today)
Trigg County Fiscal Court approved a resolution last week endorsing the initiative, and magistrates spoke in favor of the effort.
“This is not just an issue that’s an issue now,” said Trigg County Magistrate Alana Baker Dunn. “It’s an issue for the future, and I’m glad that Murray State is taking the initiative to go after the funding to make this happen, because it’s an ongoing issue and it needs a resolution now.”
Dunn cited the need for large animal veterinarians in the state and noted that, as a livestock producer, she sees the struggle daily.
While Trigg County is blessed to have two large animal vets, she observed, there aren’t any in neighboring Christian County.
Dunn said she is glad to support the establishment of a vet school at MSU, and she said she is glad to see the local fiscal court looking at the struggle with veterinarians as well.
Magistrate Mike Wright, who made the initial motion for the resolution, also cited the more than $11 million Kentucky has spent in the last two years to send its residents to out-of-state universities, and he said he understands what those funds can do for ag in western Kentucky.
Magistrates unanimously approved the resolution, which notes the court supports the creation of a veterinary school at MSU.
It further says that Trigg Fiscal Court encourages local, state and federal authorities, along with educational stakeholders, to collaborate in facilitating the steps for establishing the school, including securing funding, accreditation and community support.
Kentucky does not have a school of veterinary medicine and spent $5.6 million during fiscal year 2022-2023 and another $5.6 million during fiscal year 2033-2024 to fund 168 veterinary slots for Kentucky students with out-of-state universities, according to the resolution.
The document also noted there are only 32 veterinary colleges in the country accredited by the American Veterinary Medical Association.
Smith noted that the MSU board of regents passed a resolution 50 years ago, in 1973, to build a school of veterinary medicine.
“Even back then the animal agriculture leaders were saying we have a huge shortage of large animal vets,” Smith said. He noted that educators wanted to “educate, kind of grow our own, particularly for west Kentucky.”
Smith said officials have tried several times in the last 50 years to acquire funding to establish a veterinary school, but it’s gotten stopped, for whatever reason, in Frankfort. He said now is the time to try again.
Smith cited a diminishing number of veterinarians practicing in rural Kentucky.
Additionally, the number of veterinarians who are working with large animals in the state continues to diminish, according to Smith. He noted that the Kentucky Department of Agriculture has been conducting a working group on the shortage of large animal veterinarians during the past two years.
“The proposal is to build a school of veterinary medicine at Murray State University,” said Smith, who added MSU also has one of only two diagnostic veterinary labs in the state. Smith noted the diagnostic lab at the Breathitt Veterinary Center in Christian County has the highest federal designation that one can have, even higher than the second diagnostic lab housed at the University of Kentucky. It is a bio-level safety 1, the same level as universities including Auburn and Cornell.
Smith shared that enrollment at MSU’s School of Agriculture is about 1,400 students, something he described as “the largest, pure ag student enrollment in the state of Kentucky. We are one of only very few schools who have an already-accredited pre-vet veterinary technician vet tech program,” he noted.
MSU also has 1,600 acres of farmland that Smith said is “ready to go” for use with a new school of veterinary medicine on the campus.
Smith said more than a thousand of the university’s alumni are from Trigg County.
This story first appeared at Kentucky Today
UK nixxed the first attempt and probably will this one. They are no friend of the regional schools in Ky.