WSU faces budget crisis after OSU terminates partnership

Pullman, Wash.-Oregon State University (OSU) has officially terminated its decades-long partnership with Washington State University's College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM), effective fall 2004, handing WSU a $2.4 million budget crisis.

"This is an emergency situation that must be effectively ... addressedor result in major negative impacts to program quality and sustainability,student access, faculty recruitment and retention, and service to WSU stakeholdersin Washington, the region and the nation," a WSU memo states.

For about 30 years, OSU, which maintained a limited veterinary program,sent 36 second- and third-year veterinary students to WSU to fulfill theirsmall animal training. With the future opening of OSU's $8 million, four-yearveterinary college, the partnership was no longer deemed necessary, accordingto OSU officials.

OSU's abandonment leaves WSU in a quandary that extends beyond loss ofstudents.

"Continued accreditation of the CVM by the American Veterinary MedicalAssociation is at risk," the WSU memo states.

As a result of the split, the financial losses WSU will incur amountto a 20 percent cut in the instructional budget. To counteract the loss,WSU issued a state budget initiative detailing the steps the universityplans to take.

The initiative calls for a permanent budget increase totaling $3.4 millionover a four-year period for WSU to ensure its program can continue. Additionally,the university plans to increase class enrollment by 16 students each yearfor the next four years to replace those lost from OSU.

Should the budget demands not be met by the state, WSU would lose upto 40 core DVM instructional staff, may lose accreditation from AVMA andthe American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians, and facesreduction of animal disease diagnostic services and biosurveillance.

This year's WSU first-year veterinary class is the sixth smallest amongthe nation's 27 veterinary programs. The class size has not increased inmore than 20 years, while the state's population doubled in the same period.