Penn Vet Budget Slashed

The morale and the budget at the Univ. of Pa. Vet School are pretty much at the same place these days--low. As of last week, the state appropriation for the Vet School had been cut 30%, from nearly $43 million to $30 million. Historically, the vet school has received about 35% of its funding from the state. That difference of $13 million is huge and apparent every where you look.

For starters, the Vet School has had to eliminate the Center for Infectious Disease Research, the center that studies diseases that have the potential to move from animals to people and vice versa. The cut, is "huge," says Dean Joan Hendricks.

In addition, about 150 positions have been eliminated through layoffs and attrition and that includes vet techs and nurses, the worker bees of Penn's large and small animal hospitals. And the budget situation threatens the financial aid allowances of about half of the schools 500 students.

Also on the chopping block is the Moral Critical Care Center, under construction at New Bolton Center. The Center, which will feature an isolation unit for animals with contagious diseases, is expensive to operate--Hendricks estimates about $200,000 annually for utilities alone--and will probably not open on time this summer.

Construction costs are one thing, as the Vet School has already learned from the recent construction of the Hill Pavilion on the downtown campus. Operating these new facilities, in addition to servicing the debt required to build them, can often put an institution in a precarious financial situation.

The cut in some of the clinical programs has left many students with even more debt as they enroll in postgraduate programs to help plug the gaps they feel in their skill sets. And the weak economy has cut the revenues of the school's animal hospitals as even the most indulgent pet owners are reconsidering the costs associated with expensive treatments.

The bottom line is that the cuts are larger than anticipated and fell on an already overburdened institution. "This is dangerous," Hendricks said. "We're part of the public health system and the work we do protects people."