Provincial funding boosts vet faculty, access and capital growth strategies

September 21, 2005

Source: University of Calgary:
http://www.ucalgary.ca/news/sept05/funding.html

Provincial funding boosts vet faculty, access and capital growth strategies

The Alberta government today announced $25.3 million for several projects, including $16 million for the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and development funding for the Campus Calgary Digital Library, the Institute for Sustainable Energy, Environment and Economy and the Urban Campus.

With this funding announcement, the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine will put the U of C and the province at the forefront of research into animal diseases and food supply safety.

The faculty will provide research into the detection, containment and eradication of diseases that can spread from species to species and affect humans, and it will prepare veterinary medical practitioners and researchers focused on food supply safety. It will also produce multi-species/multi-disciplinary veterinarians through its focus on production animal medicine of all species, population medicine and investigative medicine. The program will be housed at the University of Calgary and will be linked closely with the Division of Health Sciences. It is expected to graduate 30 veterinarians each year.

“This funding is a terrific first step in having veterinary students walking through our doors as it allows us to upgrade our existing animal facilities to accommodate our junior clinical teaching requirements,” said Dr. Eugene Janzen, associate dean, clinical programs, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine

The University of Calgary’s five-year commitment to add space for an additional 7,000 students by 2010 also received a major boost with the announcement of $4 million for capital project planning.

“This investment gives further momentum to the university’s highest-priority capital projects,” said President Harvey Weingarten. “We’ve recognized the need to proceed immediately with these projects, and this gives us opportunity to continue planning and improving the university’s infrastructure.

“This is important expansion of our capacity. At this point, infrastructure constraints are limiting our ability to take more students and teach them in the most contemporary environment. The U of C has taken on more students than any other Alberta post-secondary in the last decade – the capacity crunch is limiting our ability to grow our research and teaching programs even further.”

This past spring, the U of C created a comprehensive capital plan totaling $709 million that will provide the facilities needed to meet its growth target of 7,000 new students by 2010. The plan includes construction of several major projects, including a new Campus Calgary Digital Library, the Institute for Sustainable Energy, Environment and the Economy (ISEEE), the Urban Campus and the Experiential Learning Centre. The university’s Board of Governors has approved the capital plan.

The Calgary Campus Digital Library and Experiential Learning Centre will result in 3,500 more student spaces; the Institute for Sustainable Energy, Environment and Economy will add 1,000 more spaces; the Urban Campus initiative will add 2,500 spaces downtown.

“We’re looking forward to continuing to work with the government and finding other sources of funding so we can meet our goal and not have to continue turning away qualified students in high-demand faculties,” said Weingarten.

Of the $25.3 million announced by Advanced Education Minister Dave Hancock and Infrastructure Minister Lyle Oberg, $16 million will go towards the new Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. Another $4 million will go toward the planning of the Campus Calgary Digital Library, the Institute for Sustainable Energy, Environment and Economy, the Urban Campus and the Experiential Learning Centre.

The remaining $5.3 million will be spent on replacing the Bow River Pump Station, the roof on the Biological Sciences Building, the cladding on the Earth Sciences Building and improving the electrical system in the Health Research Innovation Centre.

For more information, contact Media Advisor Grady Semmens at 220-7722 or 651-2515.

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