U. still seeking Vet School funding

They have only just begun to fight. University administrators say they are not ready to give up on tehir quest for stae funding for the Veterinary School, even though Gov. Robert Casey recently signed a new budget that includes none of the $16 million the school received from the state last year. They may have lost the battle, but they claim they haven't lost the war. They express hope about Casey's request that lawmakers pass additional spending bills when they return from their summer holiday, even though the governor has stated his opposition to any state funding for the University, including the Vet School. "We think and continue to believe that when legislators come back to recraft the budget, the legislature will rpovide funding for the Vet School," said Stephen Golding, the University's budget director. Until then, he said administrators have no plans to discuss whan an end to state funding might mean for the Vet School's continued survival. "It would be premature on our part to take any definite action until we have gotten a clear response from Harrisburg," he said. "We are left to continuation of the waiting game until the final budget is put to rest October 15." "Once we know, then I think we will have to begin making some very tough decisions dependent upon the level of funding or lack thereof. But we can't really address those questions until the Commonwealth has spoken." Of all areas at the University receiving state aid, the Vet School's portion of the University's $37.6 appropriation accounts for more than 40 percent of the school's annual operating expenses. If the legislature does not restore the Vet School's funding, Golding said the University will have to "seriously consider what kind of relationship it can have with the Vet School going forward." Golding said the University at that point will have to "investigate alternatives, if there are any." Vet School Dean Edwin Andrews has suggested in the past that without financial support from the state, the Vet School may have to close in a few years. Golding said that other less drastic moves, such as auctioning the school off to the highest bidder or turning the school into a joint venture with the state, might be a better alternative to closing it outright. But he added any such option would have to be looked with "the best interests of the University" in mind. Echoing the cries of other University administrators lobbying for the Vet School's funding, Golding said the school's benefits to the state far outweigh the $16 million which the state provided the school last year. "What the Commonwealth has lost sight of is they have a tremendous benefit here," he said, noting the state receives world-class veterinary research and services for just "40 cents on the dollar." "There isn't any state in the country that pays for the existence of a vet school that gets that, that gets that kind of a premium," he said. The Vet School is the only one of its kind in Pennsylvania and along with Tufts University, one of two private vet schools in the country.

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