JacksonandParr_1
Screenshot from agriculture committee video
Murray State University President Robert Jackson (left) and Dr. Brian Parr, Hutson School of Agriculture dean, testified about a proposed veterinary school at Murray State during an agriculture committee meeting in December. They faced questions from lawmakers and criticisms from veterinarians.
Following an unsuccessful attempt to get the go-ahead from Kentucky lawmakers last year, proponents of opening a veterinary school at Murray State University plan to try again in coming weeks. Pushing their plan over the finish line will require overcoming a wave of skepticism.
Several concerns surfaced in an independent analysis of the proposed program that was commissioned by the Kentucky General Assembly and presented on Dec. 19 to a legislative committee on agriculture. Those concerns were amplified by some lawmakers and Kentucky veterinarians at the meeting.
Outgoing Sen. Damon Thayer captured the sense of opposition early in the meeting with a question. Referring to Kentucky veterinarians, he asked, "Why are they in huge numbers against Murray State getting a vet school?"
Four veterinarians spoke against the proposal and one submitted a letter in support. Apart from university representatives, no one else testified in favor of the new program.
One central point of doubt is whether the school, which would be located in Western Kentucky, can deliver on its key selling point: helping to alleviate the state's shortage of rural, large animal practitioners.
Program critics also zeroed in on concerns about the challenges of recruiting veterinary school faculty in a tight labor market and the potential drawbacks of having to get their clinical experience in private practices rather than at a teaching hospital.
Murray State University President Robert Jackson, who retires in June, nevertheless described the report as "very positive" overall, allowing, "There are items and points we do not agree with … or have a difference of opinion in some areas."
Murray State's plan is part of an unprecedented push to expand veterinary education in the country. Ten other schools are in development, and during the past five years, three have opened in the continental United States and one in Puerto Rico.
A bill that would have allowed Murray State to offer a doctorate of veterinary medicine passed last year in the Kentucky House with a wide margin, but a companion measure stalled in a Senate committee.
Jackson told lawmakers that legislation to approve the program would be introduced in the session that began Tuesday. To achieve their goal, school proponents will need to rally support quickly because in odd-numbered years, the General Assembly meets for only 30 working days. The session ends March 28.
'A win-win for this commonwealth'
If approved, Murray State's veterinary medical program would be the first in Kentucky's history. Currently, Kentuckians looking for a veterinary education at in-state tuition rates can find it at Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine in Alabama. Under a contract with the Southern Regional Education Board, Auburn reserves 38 spots for Kentucky residents each year. The state pays Auburn to cover the difference in tuition. The program cost more than $5 million in 2024. (Kentucky also has a contract arrangement for three seats at Tuskegee University College of Veterinary Medicine in Alabama.)
Murray State's plan would potentially accommodate more residents with planned enrollment of around 70 students in fall 2027. As reported by Deloitte, projected annual tuition is $29,000 for Kentucky residents and $50,750 for nonresidents.
As highlighted by critics, the university plans to use a distributed (often called distributive) model for clinical training, whereby students get their experience off-campus, usually at private businesses, instead of at a teaching hospital run by the school.
Murray State has pitched the new program as building on its undergraduate programs in veterinary technology, a pre-veterinary medicine track and the Breathitt Veterinary Center, an animal health diagnostic laboratory.
"A school of veterinary medicine at Murray State University is a win-win for this commonwealth," Jackson said. "It's only a positive in every respect. No one loses."
Last spring, the state hired Deloitte, an international management consulting firm, to assess the Murray State proposal and three other proposed doctoral programs at other comprehensive universities in the Bluegrass State.
Deloitte researchers talked to Murray State officials; community stakeholders; deans at three veterinary schools, including Auburn, and at a proposed program at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore; and the president of the Kentucky Veterinary Medical Association. The KVMA was outspoken in expressing serious concerns about the program last year.
The Deloitte report identified no concerns with the university's general financial health, measures of student success and research infrastructure. It also found strong student demand for a veterinary program.
However, the researchers identified concerns in five areas: cost versus benefit, whether the program as proposed would satisfy accreditation standards, workforce alignment, faculty recruitment and clinical placements. The latter three categories — and Kentucky's relationship with Auburn — stirred the most discussion.
Real solution to rural shortage?
A centerpiece of Murray State's pitch to lawmakers is that the school will provide a means to home-grow and retain veterinarians to address critical shortages, particularly in the rural, large animal sector.
Amy Wittmayer, a specialist leader in Deloitte's higher education practice who co-presented the study, said its researchers found reason for skepticism about the premise.
"Historical data and industry experts dispute claims that a new in-state vet school can meaningfully address this shortage," Wittmayer told lawmakers.
The report cited a survey by the KVMA of veterinarians in the state that found 76% don't believe that the lack of an in-state veterinary school is a factor behind the shortage. Wittmayer highlighted a trend identified in American Veterinary Medical Association research showing that high student debt drives graduates to seek companion animal work in urban areas because those jobs tend to pay more.
Deloitte's review also cited a statistic from Auburn that two-thirds of Kentucky veterinary students who attend Auburn and Tuskegee return to their home state to work.
Jackson told lawmakers that the agriculture school is receiving a $4.5 million gift to be used for this purpose. That program is not tied to legislative approval for a DVM program.
Challenges recruiting faculty
Deloitte estimated that Murray State would need to hire 15 faculty. A risk area, the report said, will be recruiting those faculty due to "the current documented shortage of veterinary medical faculty in the U.S."
Deloitte cited research from the American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges showing 474 funded and unfilled positions in 2023. The shortage, Wittmayer said, is predicted to worsen as more new schools come online.
Dr. Jennifer Quammen, a veterinarian based in Walton, Kentucky, picked up that concern in her testimony. As vice president of the AVMA from 2022 to 2024, Quammen said her role was to interact with veterinary schools. She described the challenge of getting faculty — "particularly those board-certified individuals" as required by veterinary school accreditation — as a "giant concern."
Dr. Louis Pittman, a retired veterinary pathologist who worked at Murray's Breathitt lab for 24 years, expressed similar concerns at an interim education committee hearing on Dec. 10.
Pittman said he has watched veterinary schools and diagnostic labs "stealing faculty members from one another because the available pool is so small and has not increased significantly for 30 years." He added, "Murray is going to have a hard time running with the big dogs," referring to offering competitive pay.
Dr. Brian Parr, the dean of Murray State's Hutson School of Agriculture, dismissed these worries. "I do not believe there is going to be difficulty in attracting faculty," he said.
He said it begins with a founding dean, and he'd already heard from several associate or assistant deans at other distributed-model programs who were interested in the position.
Parr also said that the Breathitt Veterinary Center has specialists boarded in areas like virology and toxicology. "Those are the hard-to-find faculty, and we have them in place," he said.
Dr. Philip Prater, a retired emeritus professor in veterinary technology and agricultural sciences at Moorhead State University in Kentucky, countered that a full, accredited curriculum needs a variety of specialists.
"I realize there are some very good people at the diagnostic lab at Breathitt … but they are pathologists," he said. "That doesn't cover surgery. It doesn't cover internal medicine; it doesn't cover equine-specialty types of things … it doesn't cover reproduction. I have very serious concerns about the quantity and quality of faculty members that it is going to take to teach all those areas."
Risk and complexity of a distributed model
Although the cost of administering a distributed model of clinical education is lower than that of operating a teaching hospital, the Deloitte report flagged the approach, saying, "the complexity and risk are higher."
Deloitte found that peer institutions partner with between 130 and 600 hospitals, clinics and other facilities. It estimated that Murray State would need at least 200 partners and might need to look outside Kentucky.
Dr. James Beckman, an equine practitioner at a five-veterinarian practice in the Louisville area, offered his experience as a cautionary tale during the agriculture meeting. He said his practice offers instruction for distributed training, taking one student at a time for a total of between six and eight students a year.
He described it as demanding and time-consuming.
"Many of my colleagues are stepping out of that realm because they just can't keep up with it anymore," he said, "especially with the increased number of distributive students coming from all over the country."
Although he and his colleagues do the best they can, he said, "we can't devote the time it takes to give that world-class education."
Referring to the arrangement with Auburn, he went on: "It really worries me that we are looking to shift our veterinary education for this state from a top-10 university in the country to a distributive model." If Kentucky wants its own veterinary school, he added, it should "pony up" the $300 million to $500 million needed for a teaching hospital. "That would be, in my opinion, a much better benefit for the taxpayers of Kentucky," he said.
Dr. Debra Shoulders, a veterinarian in Bowling Green, Kentucky, also raised concerns about using the distributed model for clinical rotations, citing the expense and extra stress on students who may have to move to a different training location every four weeks — and possibly out of state. She also expressed doubt that the education would be consistent across clinical sites.
"I'm worried that vets won't pass the NAVLE," she said, using the acronym for the North American Veterinary Licensing Examination. "I have a problem giving them false hope of going through school and getting this done and not having the education to get them over the finish line to become what they want to be and wasting a lot of money while they do it."
Jackson, Murray State's president, highlighted the fact that five of the six newest veterinary schools in the country use a distributed model.
The first in the U.S. was at Western University of Health Sciences in California, which began matriculating students in 2003, followed by Lincoln Memorial University in Tennessee (2014), Long Island University in New York (2020), University of Arizona (2020) and Texas Tech University (2021).
Of the 10 proposed programs in addition to Murray State, at least seven plan to use a distributed model.
About the approach, he said, "It's a good model; it's just different." He added that all veterinarians have to pass the same exam and meet licensure requirements in order to practice.
As for finding clinical training sites in Kentucky, Parr assured lawmakers it won't be difficult. He cited a KVMA survey of Kentucky practitioners (also referenced in Deloitte's research): Of 440 who responded, 174 veterinarians said they'd like to offer a teaching site.
Parr extrapolated that with about 1,600 licensed veterinarians in the state, there could be 600 veterinarians who want to participate. "I found that to be extremely encouraging," he said.
Concerns about agreement with Auburn
Prater, the retired Moorhead professor, echoed concerns about shifting from Auburn to the proposed program.
"Are we willing to give up a world-class education for our pre-vet students and future veterinarians to take on something that we don't know how it will work …?" he asked, noting that the Auburn arrangement has been in place for more than 70 years.
"The annual budget at Auburn is about $100 million," he said. "They have the resources. They have the facilities. They have the faculty. It scares me a little bit to throw all that out the door to take on something unknown." (Deloitte estimated that Murray State's program costs may exceed $13 million per year.)
Jackson pushed back on the assumption that arrangements with out-of-state schools would be necessarily eliminated.
"Contrary to anything you may hear, [a new school] will not impact the state's regional contract agreement for veterinary slots at Auburn or Tuskegee," he told the lawmakers. "This is a public policy decision, handled by you."
Left unanswered was the question of why Kentucky would continue to subsidize seats at Alabama schools if it has a veterinary school of its own.
This story has been corrected to fix a typographical error in a statement attributed to Dr. James Beckman. He suggested a veterinary teaching hospital could cost Kentucky $300 million to $500 million, not $3 million to $5 million.