Arkansas will soon go from being without a veterinary school to having a pair of them, as Arkansas State University detailed plans for its veterinary school Tuesday.
For years, Ed Salo — an associate professor of History at A-State, associate director of Heritage Studies, and president of the Faculty Senate — has watched hundreds of our brightest studentsleave the state to study veterinary medicine, and when they leave, they often don’t return, which is a loss for “our region and our state,” he said. Creating a College of Veterinary Medicine at A-State “will help fix the problem.”
In January 2020, A-State announced a collaboration agreement with Adtalem Global Education, a private health care developer, for possible creation of a veterinary school for the Jonesboro campus. But rather than a public-private partnership, the ASU College of Veterinary Medicine will be operated by A-State, said Chancellor Todd Shields. It will be “an A-State degree with A-State faculty and facilities.”
Shields believes that will help keep costs down.
The national average for annual veterinary school tuition is over $50,000, if a student is paying in-state tuition, and more than $80,000 for out-of-state students, Shields said. A-State “will propose a tuition much lower,” and both Chuck Welch — president of the Arkansas State University System — and the ASU System board of trustees “are behind us.”
“This has been a topic of discussion for three years, but as our discussions and due diligence progressed, our commitment became even stronger,” Welch said in a statement from A-State. “Our ASU System Board of Trustees has been enthusiastic about this possibility from the beginning.”
Lyon College has already announced plans for its veterinary school, which will be part of the new Institute of Health Sciences. Though Lyon College, a private, liberal arts institution founded in 1872, is in Batesville, the Institute of Health Sciences will be in Little Rock, and Lyon President Melissa P. Taverner hopes to begin offering classes in both the dental and veterinary schools next year or in 2025.
Read Wednesday’s Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for more details.
