Cummings School may lose substantial amount of funding

     The Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine may face a significant reduction or even a complete elimination of its state funding as Massachusetts struggles to balance its budget during the economic crisis.
    The state budget for fiscal year 2010 is scheduled for completion by June 30, when the current fiscal year ends. While the Senate has yet to finalize its version of the budget, the House of Representatives put forth a budget eliminating funding for the school completely. The final House budget now allocates $500,000 to the school after state Rep. George Peterson (R-Grafton) offered an amendment to restore some of the school's funding.
    If funding for the Cummings School is eliminated from the budget, it will be the only veterinary school nationwide not to receive state funding. The Cummings School currently receives the smallest state subsidy of any veterinary school in the country, according to Keppeler.
    "I know how critical [state support] is for Tufts to be able to survive and move forward," Peterson told the Daily.
    The state originally allocated $5.3 million in funding to the Cummings School for fiscal year 2009, but Gov. Deval Patrick cut the appropriation to $2.7 million last October, according to Cummings School spokesman Tom Keppeler.
    The Cummings School, located on the Grafton campus, is the only veterinary school in New England. While three other veterinary schools existed in Massachusetts before the Cummings School was founded in 1978, none of these schools received money from the state, and all eventually shut down, according to Keppeler.
    Peterson reiterated the importance of state funding for the veterinary school in light of this history.
    "There have been three other veterinary schools — colleges — started in Massachusetts," Peterson told the Daily. "All of them have failed over the years and I think a good part of that is they did not receive any state funding."
    Keppeler declined to address the changes that the Cummings School would have to make in response to the potential decrease in funding, but put forth a positive outlook for the school in the coming years.
    "It is too early to speculate on the impact of a reduced state appropriation to the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine because the legislative process is not yet complete," Keppeler said.   
    "We continue to be optimistic about the future of the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine … There are no plans to close the school."
    Appropriations from the state compose around 10 percent of Cummings' operation budget, according to Keppeler. The school also receives funding from research grants, tuition and fees, donations and the clinical caseloads at its teaching hospitals.
    "The Cummings School portfolio, so to speak, is fairly diversified in terms of where we derive our revenue from," he said. "To that end we will actively [seek] new ways to produce revenue and new ways to cut costs in an effort to right-size the budget."
    Peterson and state Sen. Michael Moore (D-Millbury), who represents Grafton, both told the Daily that restoring state funding to the Cummings School was a top priority.
    Moore added that he would be "very unhappy" if state funding for the school were to be eliminated.
    The original version of the budget that the Senate passed in debate eliminated funding for the Cummings School, according to Moore. He requested funding for the school in his discussions with the chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee. At press time, the committee planned to release its version of the budget on May 13.
    If the committee does not allocate funding to the Cummings School, Moore said he would file an amendment to restore funding.
    After the Senate Ways and Means Committee makes its recommendations for the budget, the Senate will debate and produce a finalized version. The House and Senate versions of the budget will be discussed at a joint committee and later finalized and approved by the two chambers, according to Peterson.
    "My goal right now is to make sure we at least have some funding in the budget and make sure we have the Tufts line item reinstated in the budget," Peterson added.
    Peterson also offered continued support for the school.
    "Tufts has been a very good neighbor and a great institution since I've been in the legislature," Peterson said. "I've always supported it. They do a great job with the students and we will hopefully be able to continue that relationship."
    The reduction in state money will not have an impact on the Cummings School's recently constructed New England Regional Biosafety Laboratory, for which the National Institutes of Health provided the majority of the funding, according to Keppeler.
    "We have every intention of opening the new lab on the same schedule we had originally proposed, which would put it in operation to a limited extent this summer," he said.
    Cuts to funding for the Cummings School are a small part of Massachusetts' response to the financial crisis that has hit the entire country. Though the state has already cut $3 billion from the budget during the current fiscal year, it will have to cut much more in order to put forth a balanced budget for next year, according to Moore.
    "The state right now does not have the revenue coming in to support the programs we've been supporting," he said.
    The Cummings School has had difficulty in obtaining state funding in the past, according to Keppeler. For instance, state funding for the school was cut in 2003 but was subsequently restored to a certain extent.
    The school's responses to those cuts included creating new academic programs and making other budgetary changes, according to Keppeler.
    Peterson also said that the Cummings School had experienced years with reduced funding, but that the cuts had not been as severe as now.
    "I don't think it's gotten to this level," he said. "It has had some lean years."