From Sunday morning's Avalanche of News: http://lubbockonline.com/local-news...raw-battle-lines-over-vet-school#.Vm2PPfkrLIU
The Texas Tech brass, led by Chancellor Robert Duncan, chartered a jet for a very short jaunt five days ago from Lubbock to Amarillo. Suffice to say, they weren’t going for Taco Tuesday.
It takes a big deal to get a contingent from Tech to leave en masse in the middle of the work week. And this is a big deal. A big deal for Tech, a big deal for West Texas, and a big deal for the local and state animal industry.
While news was released Dec. 4 from Texas Tech, last Tuesday was the formal announcement in front of the Amarillo campus of Tech’s Health Sciences Center. Even the Masked Rider and horse Fearless Champion were on hand, but presumably Fearless did not have a seat on the jet.
Sort of fitting that a horse was on hand since Tech’s announcement was the plans for a four-year veterinary medicine school within Amarillo’s medical campus model. It would be more than a vet school, officials said, with an additional focus on the food animal industry, food safety and security.
Duncan talked in promising terms of ancillary growth for Amarillo from the animal industry. It would be a boon economically.
“The benefits would be huge for this area,” said Dr. Michael Galyean, dean of Tech’s Agriculture Sciences and Natural Resources. “It’s a missing piece of this area.”
Well, not so fast.
There’s a large, influential group some 430 miles to the southeast along the Brazos River that doesn’t exactly agree with the talk of opportunity, growth and meeting needs.
They see it as an unnecessary infringement upon its birthright with its renowned veterinarian school that will be 100 years old next year — that’s the Aggies at Texas A&M.
A&M Chancellor John Sharp threw a not-so-subtle shot across the bow last week to set the stage for what lies ahead: “As a courtesy, last weekend I informed Chancellor Robert Duncan that the Texas A&M School of Veterinary Medicine would soon announce a presence in several Texas A&M System schools.
“In response, Mr. Duncan comes up with this long-rejected claim we should fund a vet school at Texas Tech. The Coordinating Board has specifically rejected the notion. The Legislature has rejected this for 40 years. We will proceed with our announcement as planned.”
Translation: This is going to be a heavyweight fight in the backrooms of the state legislature. Battle lines are being drawn.
“Nothing is ever easy and it shouldn’t be,” said Duncan, a former state senator. “It’s been my experience in the state legislature that you need to make a case and we plan on making our case.
“We think we can present opportunities that are unique to this region but also unique to Texas and unique to what has been provided before.”
Never mind there are only 30 vet schools in the country, and only one in a state of 26.5 million and that two others are closer to A&M than Amarillo. What Tech and philanthropy efforts in Amarillo are attempting to do is to some Aggies the equivalent of spinning donuts at the 50-yard-line at Kyle Field.
Make no mistake, A&M will use its considerable clout to make sure this never gets off the ground in what is essentially giving Tech and West Texas the back of its hand.
“They do have some clout,” said Texas Tech Chancellor Emeritus Kent Hance, “but so do we. I hope maybe we can change their minds.”
Hance was chancellor from 2006 to 2014. The vet school has been a bold idea for years, but it was pointless to try as long as Rick Perry, the former Aggie yell leader, was governor. He would have vetoed it over lunch.
“It’s pretty obvious Chancellor Sharp has made it apparent they will do everything they can to defeat it,” Hance said. “It’s going to be an all-out fight, but it’s something we can win. This isn’t about Tech vs. A&M in the legislature. It ought to be about needs and a need of another vet school.”
Hance said Tech, which has had a law school since the 1960s, never battled A&M on its law school. Tech never fought the University of North Texas and the University of Texas of getting medical schools in the Rio Grande Valley and Austin.
“Usually there’s been a gentlemen’s agreement not to oppose an opponent’s progress,” Hance said. “I think this is the Aggies just not wanting to share.”
Separate box next to article:
A history of vet school friction
Texas Tech has studied opening a school of veterinary medicine at least twice. The only similar program offered in the state originated 85 years ago at Texas A&M University.
Texas Tech, in Lubbock, is nearly 400 miles west of College Station, home of Texas A&M.
- In 1971, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board authorized Texas Tech to create a veterinary school on its main campus, but the plan never left the planning table because of funding concerns.
- In 2001, state officials proposed are proposing the creation of a veterinary school at Texas Tech University. The catch? Legislators wanted the school to be in East Texas. Texas A&M opposed the plan and Tech was unable to raise the required funding for the project, estimated at $100 million at the time.
The Texas Tech brass, led by Chancellor Robert Duncan, chartered a jet for a very short jaunt five days ago from Lubbock to Amarillo. Suffice to say, they weren’t going for Taco Tuesday.
It takes a big deal to get a contingent from Tech to leave en masse in the middle of the work week. And this is a big deal. A big deal for Tech, a big deal for West Texas, and a big deal for the local and state animal industry.
While news was released Dec. 4 from Texas Tech, last Tuesday was the formal announcement in front of the Amarillo campus of Tech’s Health Sciences Center. Even the Masked Rider and horse Fearless Champion were on hand, but presumably Fearless did not have a seat on the jet.
Sort of fitting that a horse was on hand since Tech’s announcement was the plans for a four-year veterinary medicine school within Amarillo’s medical campus model. It would be more than a vet school, officials said, with an additional focus on the food animal industry, food safety and security.
Duncan talked in promising terms of ancillary growth for Amarillo from the animal industry. It would be a boon economically.
“The benefits would be huge for this area,” said Dr. Michael Galyean, dean of Tech’s Agriculture Sciences and Natural Resources. “It’s a missing piece of this area.”
Well, not so fast.
There’s a large, influential group some 430 miles to the southeast along the Brazos River that doesn’t exactly agree with the talk of opportunity, growth and meeting needs.
They see it as an unnecessary infringement upon its birthright with its renowned veterinarian school that will be 100 years old next year — that’s the Aggies at Texas A&M.
A&M Chancellor John Sharp threw a not-so-subtle shot across the bow last week to set the stage for what lies ahead: “As a courtesy, last weekend I informed Chancellor Robert Duncan that the Texas A&M School of Veterinary Medicine would soon announce a presence in several Texas A&M System schools.
“In response, Mr. Duncan comes up with this long-rejected claim we should fund a vet school at Texas Tech. The Coordinating Board has specifically rejected the notion. The Legislature has rejected this for 40 years. We will proceed with our announcement as planned.”
Translation: This is going to be a heavyweight fight in the backrooms of the state legislature. Battle lines are being drawn.
“Nothing is ever easy and it shouldn’t be,” said Duncan, a former state senator. “It’s been my experience in the state legislature that you need to make a case and we plan on making our case.
“We think we can present opportunities that are unique to this region but also unique to Texas and unique to what has been provided before.”
Never mind there are only 30 vet schools in the country, and only one in a state of 26.5 million and that two others are closer to A&M than Amarillo. What Tech and philanthropy efforts in Amarillo are attempting to do is to some Aggies the equivalent of spinning donuts at the 50-yard-line at Kyle Field.
Make no mistake, A&M will use its considerable clout to make sure this never gets off the ground in what is essentially giving Tech and West Texas the back of its hand.
“They do have some clout,” said Texas Tech Chancellor Emeritus Kent Hance, “but so do we. I hope maybe we can change their minds.”
Hance was chancellor from 2006 to 2014. The vet school has been a bold idea for years, but it was pointless to try as long as Rick Perry, the former Aggie yell leader, was governor. He would have vetoed it over lunch.
“It’s pretty obvious Chancellor Sharp has made it apparent they will do everything they can to defeat it,” Hance said. “It’s going to be an all-out fight, but it’s something we can win. This isn’t about Tech vs. A&M in the legislature. It ought to be about needs and a need of another vet school.”
Hance said Tech, which has had a law school since the 1960s, never battled A&M on its law school. Tech never fought the University of North Texas and the University of Texas of getting medical schools in the Rio Grande Valley and Austin.
“Usually there’s been a gentlemen’s agreement not to oppose an opponent’s progress,” Hance said. “I think this is the Aggies just not wanting to share.”
Separate box next to article:
A history of vet school friction
Texas Tech has studied opening a school of veterinary medicine at least twice. The only similar program offered in the state originated 85 years ago at Texas A&M University.
Texas Tech, in Lubbock, is nearly 400 miles west of College Station, home of Texas A&M.
- In 1971, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board authorized Texas Tech to create a veterinary school on its main campus, but the plan never left the planning table because of funding concerns.
- In 2001, state officials proposed are proposing the creation of a veterinary school at Texas Tech University. The catch? Legislators wanted the school to be in East Texas. Texas A&M opposed the plan and Tech was unable to raise the required funding for the project, estimated at $100 million at the time.
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