As the Massachusetts House of Representatives this week deliberates over the state budget, one of the items under debate will be state funding for the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, which is once again in danger of being cut.
The Cummings School is the only veterinary school in the New England region. Since the recession and state budget crisis started, the state appropriation for the school has fallen from $5.5 million to around $2.5 million, according to Associate Director of Public Relations Tom Keppeler.
Under the 2012 budget being debated, this funding could see further cuts.
Gov. Deval Patrick (D) recommended $1.5 million for the Cummings School, and the budget in its current form — put together by the Ways and Means Committee — reduces that figure further to $1 million.
In response, four legislators, Reps. George Peterson Jr. (R−Grafton); Matthew Beaton (R−Shrewsbury); Kevin Murphy (D−Lowell); and Paul Frost (R−Auburn) have submitted an amendment to increase the appropriation to $3 million.
"I know the breadth of services that are offered there and the rarity within Massachusetts to have … an organization that does so much outreach within its community and even branches out of Grafton," Beaton told the Daily. "It's just a tremendous resource for the greater community."
Despite being part of a private university, the Cummings School has since its inception received funding from the state in what Keppeler calls a "unique" private−public partnership.
"The state has its state colleges and universities. … We consider ourselves the state veterinary school, and that's actually how we were founded," he said. "Rather than the state running its own veterinary school, it invests in this private university to educate the state's veterinarians."
Peterson echoed Beaton, saying that the school was too valuable to the community to cut state funding from.
"They have done a fabulous job of being a partner with the state and the local community," Peterson told the Daily. "They've spent millions of dollars upgrading and renovating existing facilities, millions of dollars in new capital expansion, which has provided jobs. ... I felt it was extremely important since every vet school across the country, whether public or private, needs a state subsidy in order to be able to survive."
The Cummings School has launched a grassroots campaign encouraging friends of the school to contact their respective legislators in support of this amendment.
"This is an enormously important step," Keppeler said. "If a legislator hears from people in his own home district who were responsible for electing him … then he will sit up and take notice and at least has to consider what it is you are saying."
Senior administrators have also been actively canvassing legislators for support.
"The university works very hard to lobby the governor and the state legislature," Vice President of University Relations Mary Jeka said. "[Cummings School] Dean [Deborah] Kochevar, the [university] president, Larry Bacow, and I meet with a variety of members from the legislature to advocate for the funding."
Both Jeka and Keppeler acknowledged the tough economic climate the state is facing.
"These are difficult economic times," Jeka said. "There are programs that are very important, such as the Cummings School, that are receiving cutbacks."
The Cummings School, according to Kochevar, has enjoyed over 30 years of support from the state, support which has continued to come under threat during difficult economic periods. The school faced a similar scenario in 2009, when the state threatened to significantly reduce or even eliminate its funding, a step which was later avoided.
Kochevar said that the funding cuts the veterinary school now faces are disproportionate, especially in relation to those faced by state universities.
"We appreciate the legislature's continued support of the school; however, the veterinary school has been cut more than 70 percent in the past few years, which is an amount disproportionate to the rest of the state's higher education system," Kocehvar said in an email to the Daily, referring to the total cuts, including those listed in the proposed version of the budget under debate.
Based on the governor's recommendation, the state's higher education system faces cuts ranging from 15 to 16 percent.
Both Beaton and Jeka said it was premature to judge whether there was sufficient support for the amendment, which will be debated some time this week. Peterson and Murphy indicated, however, that based on their conversations, the amendment was likely to pass, although not necessarily with the $3 million.
"Absolutely, we may not get the full amount requested, but we will get an increase over the current amount proposed," Murphy told the Daily.
Keppeler said state funds constitute between 5 and 10 percent of the school's operating budget, which is also built out of clinical revenues, research contracts, government research funding, philanthropic support and tuition. Thus, the cuts, while hurting the school, would not put it in a precarious position, he said.
"If the government cuts our budget, it is bad, but it's not dire," he said.
The bigger problem, according to Keppeler, is that even as the economic situation has necessitated the cuts in state funding, it has also adversely affected these other sources of funding.
In response to past and potential future decreases in the state appropriation, the school has had to cut back its spending while seeking to preserve its educational offerings and avoid tuition raises, Keppeler said.
"We've cut back on nearly all unnecessary spending, whether it is faculty travel or food at meetings or bottled water here in the faculty and staff offices," Keppeler said. "As far as programmatic offerings, I would hope … that those would be the last things to be on the chopping block. The last thing we would want to do is decrease the educational experience of our students."
Murphy, who has served as chairman of the state House's Committee on Higher Education, said that he was impressed by the quality of the school's program.
"I've had the opportunity to become involved with the veterinary program at Tufts," he said. "I was very impressed with what the program does, especially in light of the fact that it's the only veterinary school in New England."
Keppeler affirmed that the Cummings School is continually trying to reduce its dependence on the state's funding and is — relatively speaking — fairly independent.
"Decreasing our revenues from state appropriation is always an important long−term goal, but it requires a lot of money to do so," he said. "This institution has a great entrepreneurial history, which means that such a such a low percentage of this budget comes from this funding. … We run a lean and diversified operation here, and, as such, we'll be able to weather the storm, provided that the state continues to invest in us."
Veterinary schools have generally required additional funding support because they tend to be very expensive to upkeep given the animals, land, facilities and maintenance personnel required.
"In human medicine, we have to prepare students to become experts in every single system, but for one species," Keppeler said. "Imagine having to educate those same doctors … but for every other species on Earth except for humans. It is an enormously expensive undertaking to do that."
