Purdue University
Veterinary Medical
UPDATE
61. XXIII, No. 1
AVMA Grants Purdue SVM
Full Accreditation
The AVMA Council on Education
announced this Spring that it is granting
the School of Veterinary Medicine full
accreditation extending into the new
millennium. The announcement followed a visit by the accreditation site
team last fall. The team spent several
days conducting a thorough review of
the School's educational, research and
service programs and facilities. Based
on the team's findings, the Council on
Education renewed the School's
accreditation for the maximum seven
year term covering the period of 1998 -
2004.
The accreditation review focused
on eleven essential areas: organization,
finances, physical plant and equipment,
clinical resources, library and learning
resources, student enrollment, admissions, faculty, curriculum, continuing
education and extension, and research
and post-graduate education. The team
also expressed positive comments
about the Veterinary Technology program as it relates to the School's clinics, even though the program itself was
not reviewed as part of the accreditation process.
Each of the eleven accreditation
review areas received a favorable evaluation. The team especially highlighted
the School's recently expanded facilities as excellent. Other pluses cited by
the team include the positive can-do
attitude of the faculty, staff and students, and their focus on working
together in teams; the quality of the
School's Flow Cytometry facility,
Cytology Research Center, Center for
the Human-Animal Bond, and cancer
biology program; the size and quality
The addition to Lynn Hall, completed in 1995, figured prominently in the School
of Veterinary Medicine's successful accreditation review.
of the Veterinary Teaching Hospital's
support staff; the extensive utilization
of computer resources and the potential
for further development of those
resources; curricular changes that have
introduced a case-based approach to
learning, specifically through the establishment of the new Applications and
Integrations courses for freshmen and
sophomores; and the good working
relationship that exists between the
School of Veterinary Medicine, the
Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory
and the Purdue School of Agriculture.
The team also recommended some
areas for improvement. Those areas
include reducing the number of official
school committees; adding three to five
more clinical faculty as well as boosting the size of the research faculty;
obtaining more funding to recruit graduate students; expanding certain clinical focal areas, such as avian and
exotics; strengthening emergency services in the hospital; and expanding
animal housing space.
Other visit highlights included the
team's praise for the School's continuing education and extension programs.
Team members said they were very
impressed with the continuing education programming and would like to
recommend it as a model to others. The
team also gave special praise to the
School's curriculum committee, which
it regarded as extremely knowledgeable
about curricular issues. Additionally,
the team viewed the School as on the
leading edge of the use of computer
technology, especially in regard to
producing interactive programs for
classroom use.
In This Issue
Dean's Column  2
Help for Misbehaving Pets 3
Kenneth Scott Fellowships 4,5
New Vet. Tech B.S. Degree 5
Veterinary Dentistry 6
Equine Sports Medicine Report .... 7
Focus on Faculty 8,9,10
Fall Conference Highlights .. 13,14,15
Honors and Awards 19-21