In 1967 Clyde York, then president of the Tennessee Farm Bureau and member of the UT Board of Trustees, recommended the board ask the university’s administration to study the possibility of establishing a veterinary school to help alleviate the lack of access to veterinarians and provide more Tennesseans the opportunity to attend veterinary school. The board received the go-ahead and began a formal study. At the same time, the Tennessee Farm Bureau passed a resolution requesting a similar feasibility study. The Tennessee Veterinary Medical Association also formed a “School Investigating Committee” and later voted unanimously to support the establishment of a veterinary school in the state.
In 1968, the feasibility study recommended the establishment of a veterinary school on the Knoxville campus. Eventually, the Tennessee Legislature directed the Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC) to conduct a formal study. Dr. Willis W. Armistead, dean of Michigan State University’s veterinary college, was hired as the THEC consultant. His Increased Veterinary Services for Tennessee and Consultant’s Report became the foundation for the veterinary college.
In March 1974, legislation passed the House (unanimous vote) and Senate (32-1 vote) establishing a veterinary college. Governor Winfield Dunn signed the legislation on March 19 of that year.
Once the veterinary college was established, the search was on for a dean. Dr. W.W. Armistead, the consultant who produced the Increased Veterinary Services for Tennessee and Consultant’s Report, was UT’s top choice. But would he want the position? After all, he was well known nationally in the veterinary profession: he was past president of the American Veterinary Medical Association, the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges, was founding editor of the Journal of Veterinary Medical Education, and had served as dean at Texas A & M and Michigan State University. In the summer of 1974, Armistead was named UTCVM dean. He later recalled in a 1987 videotape about the college’s founding that he was “hooked” on Tennessee in part, because of the new program’s unusual amount of support.
The UT College of Veterinary Medicine’s 50th anniversary celebration continues. We have planned special events throughout the year to thank our faculty, staff, students, alumni, referring veterinarians, clients, and supporters who have been or are our essential partners in the College’s success. We hope you will look forward to our monthly emails throughout 2024 as we highlight a different aspect of the College’s history. This month, hiring a leader.
With his vast experience within the profession, Armistead knew professors all over the country. That served the college well when he hand-selected his faculty and staff. Nancy Smith, administrative secretary and later assistant to the dean was his first hire. Armistead hired department heads to lead the Department of Urban Practice (Dr. Dean Gage), the Department of Rural Practice (Dr. Horace Barron), the Department of Pathobiology (Dr. Robert Michel), and the Department of Environmental Practice (Dr. Hyram Kitchen). The heads of the UT Department of Animal Science (Dr. Ronald Johnson), and Department of Microbiology (Dr. Arthur Brown), were already at the University. Armistead and the department heads selected Dr. William Grau as associate dean for resident instruction and Dr. Charles Reed as associate dean for development.
– 50th Anniversary Committee, with gratitude to Dr. Nancy Howell, author of A Recent Past, An Unlimited Future.
The UT College of Veterinary Medicine’s 50th anniversary celebration continues, and this month heralds Founder’s Day. Throughout the year we have planned special events to thank our faculty, staff, students, alumni, referring veterinarians, clients, and supporters who have been or are our essential partners in the College’s success. We hope you will look forward to our monthly emails throughout 2024 as we highlight a different aspect of the College’s history. This month, brick by brick.
In 1973, a tract of land on the agricultural campus facing Neyland Drive and the Tennessee River was identified for the new veterinary building. In a 1993 interview with Nancy Howell for A Recent Past, An Unlimited Future, Dr. Joe Johnson said there was never any question about where to locate the school. “That was the only logical place to put a veterinary school because of the land grant mission of the university, the Institute of Agriculture, and UT’s large faculty.”
On April 3, 1976, faculty, staff, and governmental leaders attended a groundbreaking ceremony for the new building. Originally, the College of Agriculture used the land for field test plots. Dr. Leonard Josephson chronicled the construction of the veterinary college with periodic photographs from his office window in the Plant and Soil Sciences Building. He later gave the slides to Dean Armistead and noted on the envelope that the land was “originally a useful and profitable acreage.”
Dean W.W. Armistead had estimated design and construction of the facility would be $ 17 million and the legislature appropriated all the money at one time. The college was designed and built on schedule with enough money to almost double the size of the Agriculture-Veterinary Library. Construction of the veterinary building took about two years. In September 1978, faculty, staff, and students moved into the new facility. Previously, classes had been held at Cherokee Farm.
– 50th Anniversary Committee, with gratitude to Dr. Nancy Howell, author of A Recent Past, An Unlimited Future.
The UT College of Veterinary Medicine’s 50th anniversary celebration continues, and throughout the year we have planned special events to thank our faculty, staff, students, alumni, referring veterinarians, clients, and supporters who have been or are our essential partners in the College’s success. We hope you will look forward to our monthly emails throughout 2024 as we highlight a different aspect of the College’s history. This month, the first class.
In the 1973 report to a Special Joint Committee of the Tennessee General Assembly, Increased Veterinary Services for Tennessee, W.W. Armistead wrote, “Tennessee has an inadequate supply of veterinarians. At present, there are about 340 veterinarians practicing in the State, which is a little less than 9 veterinarians per 100,000 population. The national ratio is about 13.5 veterinarians per 100,000 population, so Tennessee is substantially behind the national average.” At the time, two national studies concluded it would take 17.5 veterinarians per 100,000 to provide adequate services to pets, livestock, public health services, education, and research.
Tennessee purchased student contract spaces at other veterinary colleges in several states including Georgia, Kansas, and Ohio through the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB). The majority of contract spaces were in Alabama. Through the SREB program, 21 out-of-state students received in-state tuition in Alabama (19 at Auburn and 2 at Tuskegee) in 1973.
In the report, Armistead noted that states with veterinary colleges tended to have more accessible veterinary services. The majority of Tennesseans returned to the state to practice. About two-thirds of the veterinarians practicing in the state in 1973 were Auburn graduates.
201 Tennesseans applied for the Class of 1979. 117 were interviewed and ultimately twenty-eight males and twelve females were accepted. In the fall of 1976, forty students began a hectic three-year, year-round veterinary curriculum. Dr. Pat Hackett, Class of 1979 president, wrote in a VOLVet Vision Magazine article, “It all began in 1976. We were asked to go to veterinary school year-round for three years, unlike any other veterinary school in the country. That is the first unusual situation. The second was we didn’t have a building; we just used whatever space was available. That was fine for classrooms because there were always some that we could borrow. Anatomy lab was a little tougher! So, they remodeled the area below the seats in the Brehm Arena. It was temporary, so no need for heat or air.”
UTCVM Historical Events in April
