STRATEGIC PLAN FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA

COLLEGE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE

October 27, 1999

VISION STATEMENT AND INTRODUCTION

Our vision is that the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine be in the top tier of veterinary colleges in the nation by the year 2010. The College (at 50 years of age) is relatively young and has real potential to achieve excellence. Two goals are proposed to attain greater excellence over the next 10 years. These are: 1) to restore and enhance the environment for state-of-the-art veterinary clinical science and practice and 2) to increase research productivity. The rationale for these goals is based on an assessment of where the College now ranks and the external and internal forces affecting it.

Where do we now rank among the 27 schools and colleges of veterinary medicine in the United States* In some ways we are the best in the nation. Certain of our programs are internationally acclaimed, and many faculty are likewise renown.

Strengths

* Faculty excellence. Seven College faculty members have received the UGA Josiah Meigs teaching award. Two of our faculty have been recognized nationally with awards for teaching. In addition, we have many faculty who are internationally recognized experts in their areas of research, including diseases of poultry, caged birds, fish, wildlife, companion animals, and horses. The majority of our faculty hold the DVM or equivalent degree, and 56% have PhD*s.

* Instructional technology. Our faculty have pioneered the use of computer assisted learning for veterinary instruction through the use of the Internet and 3D real-time interactive, instructional media.

* Access to animal populations. A variety of College programs link faculty and students to domestic and wildlife species. These programs include the Athens and Tifton diagnostic laboratories, the Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study, the Poultry Diagnostic and Research Center, the Food Animal Health Program, and the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital. The potential for scholarly pursuits utilizing these animal populations is great. The opportunity exists for translational biology (connecting basic biology and social science with biomedical science) involving animal health, food safety from production to consumption, and human-animal interdependence. Scientists in the greater University community could benefit from these animal populations through collaboration with College faculty.

* Interdisciplinary programs. The College has interdisciplinary programs established and planned that offer opportunities for collaborative biomedical research and graduate training. These include the Interdisciplinary Toxicology Program, the Soft Tissue Center, the Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases, and the Vaccinology Program. Faculty have links to the Complex Carbohydrate Research Center. These programs and links provide the opportunity for the College and the University to expand extramural funding for research and graduate training.

* New and renovated facilities. The College, University and State and Federal governments have invested or planned approximately $45 million in facilities for the College in the 1990's. Most notably among these are the Athens and Tifton Diagnostic Laboratories, the Poultry Diagnostic and Research Center, the Animal Health Research Center, and the Veterinary Bioresources Facility. The return on these investments will become apparent in the coming years.

* An exemplary student population. Public interest in veterinary medicine, applications for admission, and the credentials of matriculating students are at an all-time high. Veterinary students are among the best and the brightest of the professional and graduate students at the University. This pool of talent provides an excellent resource to recruit future biomedical scientists for society.

Weaknesses

Our College has identified three aspirational colleges of veterinary medicine (University of California at Davis, Colorado State University, and Cornell University). Compared to these institutions, our College has deficiencies that must be overcome to achieve greater excellence.

* Although our case load is greater than that in each of the above colleges, our hospital facilities are dramatically smaller. The size of the respective teaching hospitals are: Colorado State University 125,000 ft2 ; the University of California at Davis 131,000 ft2 ; and Cornell University 120,000 ft2 . In comparison, the UGA College of Veterinary Medicine Hospital is 50,000 ft2 .

* Too few faculty

* Too few residents and graduate students

* Too few staff in the hospital

* Resident and non-resident tuition is low.

* Our total budget is about half that of the above institutions.

* Our sponsored research support is about one fifth that of the above institutions.

* Our endowment is low.

* The quantity and quality of research space in original buildings is deficient.

BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE FOR IMPROVEMENT

External forces compel the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine to attain a higher level of excellence.

* The College must be responsive to changing societal expectations and needs for primary health care for animals. The principal mission of the College is to train entry level veterinarians in the primary health care of all animal species. Unprecedented demand for services in our teaching hospital is a major force impacting on human and physical resources of the College. Societal expectations for primary care involve adaptations of rapidly expanding knowledge and technology. The importance of the human/animal bond raises the expectation for increasing sophistication in animal health care. Society expects veterinarians to guide and develop policy for wildlife management, laboratory animal care and use, companion animal welfare, and the humane and safe production of food and fiber from animal sources. Currently, the average number of job offers for new graduates is three per person. Given projected population growth and economic development in Georgia, we expect this to continue over the next ten years. Furthermore, there may be specific regional deficits in veterinary service. For instance, certain members of the Board of Regents believe that South Georgia is under served. Without more critically needed hospital space, increasing enrollment is not possible.

* The College must increase the variety and impact of advanced veterinary training. Advanced training allows veterinarians to engage in health issues beyond primary care. The veterinary profession plays an integral role in the advancement of knowledge in the medical sciences. It is imperative that the veterinary profession in the United States be responsive to new or emerging animal/health issues. To meet this societal need and to sustain the impact of the profession, more opportunities for post-DVM training are essential. Veterinarians seek advanced training at different stages of their careers and provide a talented pool of mature biomedical scientists. Continuing education is the lynch pin of a successful profession, and innovative ways should be found to improve both graduate and post-DVM training.

Internal forces pose obstacles to attaining a higher level of excellence.

* Clinical scholarship. In the 1970's the College played a leadership role in the advancement of veterinary clinical science in the United States. It provided new positions for clinical scientists with competitive salaries as well as job responsibilities with realistic time for scholarly pursuit. In 1979 the College occupied a state-of-the-art teaching hospital that attracted the best academic clinicians in the country. Since that time, however, the College*s competitive advantages have eroded. While caseloads have dramatically increased, clinical positions and hospital space have not. The expansion of biomedical knowledge and the diversification of specialties also have increased the need for faculty positions. Because the Veterinary Teaching Hospital represents the top of the hierarchy for referral, cases are increasingly complex and time consuming. The public has ever-increasing expectations for quality, sophistication, and success in animal health care. These additions to work load and demands on time have occurred at the expense of clinical scholarship. The responsibility for clinical scholarly pursuits distinguishes the university-based teaching hospital from private, specialized veterinary practices.

* Research productivity. The lack of a critical mass of research faculty and insufficient facilities prevented high research productivity during the first 30-40 years in the life of the College. In 1996 the University administration explicitly conveyed the expectation that research productivity needs to be increased. The College has implemented strategies for improving research productivity, which will be enhanced and expanded in the next decade (see explanation under Goal 2 below).

STRATEGIC GOALS:

Goal 1. To restore and enhance the environment for state-of-the-art veterinary clinical science and practice.

* Build a new veterinary teaching hospital. With a new hospital the College can accommodate the diversification of specialties, meet societal expectations for expanding health care service, provide better learning opportunities for students, and enhance the scholarly productivity of the faculty. To accommodate the clinical caseload and provide sufficient space for training veterinarians, a 150,000 ft2 teaching hospital is needed. This will cost an estimated $50-75 million . Potential sources of funding include:

* State appropriation. The College is due for primary consideration for major capital improvement.

* New bond issue opportunities. This will require new authorizations for the construction of state facilities.

* Hospital income. Based on the current caseload, income, and potential for realignment of annual expenditures, the College could generate an estimated $0.5 million per year for construction costs.

* Private funding opportunities. Individuals or corporations that recognize the role that veterinary medicine has in economic development of the state may support this project. The human-animal bond is also a powerful motivational force for generating private donations.

* Provide incentives for development of clinical faculty. These will include:

* Endowments for clinical professorships or chairs. Funds made available from the endowment would be used in support of scholarly endeavors. In 1999 the College hired a full-time director of development to expand fund raising efforts. In the past three years the College has experienced a trend toward increased gifts and pledges. We anticipate further growth in the next ten years, and we consider two clinical professorships (@$250,000 each) and one chair (@$1,000,000) as realistic objectives.

* Create non-tenure track clinical or research positions. In order to enhance opportunities for scholarship by clinical faculty, companion positions will be created to provide release time from hospital service responsibilities or to provide direct support of research efforts. How this will be done is addressed below.

* Increase the personal services budget. Through the 1970's and 1980's two or more specialists in each of the major clinical disciplines allowed for provision of health care as well as scholarly activity. Today this is no longer the case. We have too few people in the major disciplines (medicine, surgery, radiology, pathology) and none in fields such as oncology and emergency medicine. In addition, to compete with private specialty practice, base salaries and or salary supplements for certain disciplines will need to be raised. Meeting these needs will require at least 7 new faculty positions. Salary adjustments necessary to meet market demands for individuals in certain disciplines will require an estimated 5% increase over the current faculty personal services budget, and a 10% increase over the current staff personal services budget. Finally, the hire of additional technical, clerical, and professional support personnel will be required to increase the staff/faculty ratio from the current 2.5 to 3.0. To meet Goal #1, an increased personal services budget of approximately $3.99 million will be necessary, and the following sources will be used.

* New University allocations

* Increased Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) fees from states that contract with Georgia to educate new veterinarians

* Additional differential tuition

* Hospital income

Goal 2. To increase research productivity.

* Attain research excellence in selected areas. To do this the College will shift from its current broad, discipline-based approach to one that supports focused research in specific areas. This approach will lead to measurable increases in critical mass of faculty, extramural funding, and solutions of animal health problems of economic and social significance. To facilitate focused research the College will replace twenty-one anticipated faculty retirements over the next ten years with new hires that complement areas of strength. The College will improve faculty competitiveness for extramural funding by providing grant writing workshops. Rewards for team-building, collaboration, and productivity will be provided through annual merit salary increases. Equipment, start-up funds (for an estimated 21 faculty replacements @$150,000 each), technical support, and research space will be provided that is commensurate with research expectations and productivity. The College will focus in the following areas based on current and emerging strengths.

* Poultry disease research

* Infectious diseases, emerging diseases and animal health vaccine development

* Food safety from production to consumption

* Fish, wildlife, caged bird health and disease research

* Animal behavior

* Equine abdominal disease and endotoxemia

* Neurotoxicology and pharmacology

* Nephrology/urology

* Mediators of pain and inflammation

* Obesity

* Locomotor disorders

* Provide additional and improved space for research. After the new hospital is built and occupied, the existing hospital space (50,000 ft2) will be available for research. Approximately $15 million will be required for remodeling. In addition, the quality of existing research space will be improved through renovation. We estimate that these renovations will require $5 million. Possible sources of funding include the following:

* MRR funding

* Extramural research support (eg, NIH laboratory facility awards)

* Georgia Research Alliance

* Salary savings

* Private funds

* Provide incentives for development of research faculty:

* Promote expectation for salary support through extramural grants. Extramural awards supporting salaries will allow portions of state salaries to be used for research program development.

* Endowments for two research professorships and one chair. We consider two research professorships (@$250,000 each) and one chair (@$1,000,000) as realistic objectives.

* National Academy of Sciences. Within the next decade the College will seek the nomination of at least one of its research faculty to membership in the United States National Academy of Science.

* Increase opportunities for graduate student training. Expansion of the graduate program goes hand in hand with increased research productivity and extramural funding. We anticipate that new faculty hires will result in an estimated 14% increase (15 additional graduate students) in the number of students enrolled in advanced training. In addition to the above, the College will develop combined degree programs (DVM/MS or PhD, and residency/MS or PhD). Combined programs will include dual mentorship between the College of Veterinary Medicine and other colleges and institutions. Our goal is to provide the stipends and tuition for 14 students per year enrolled in the combined DVM/PhD program. Support for the above will include:

* NIH training grants (eg KO8)

* Private foundations (eg Merck Foundation)

* Extramural grants

* University funds

* Increase the personal services budgets. Developing the critical mass of researchers that will be necessary to sustain and build a competitive research program will require at least 3 new faculty positions. Salary adjustments necessary to meet market demands for individuals in certain disciplines will require an estimated 5% increase over the current faculty personal services budget, and a 10% increase over the current staff personal services budget. Finally, the hire of additional technical, clerical, and professional support personnel will be required to increase the current staff/faculty ratio from 2.5 to 3.0. An increased personal services budget of approximately $1.741 million will be necessary, and will include the following sources.

* New University allocations

* Extramural grants