While Jenks Britt worked on the house that he and his fiancé would soon move into, his mother arrived with a letter to him from Auburn University.
A nerve-racking three-month wait to hear from the school preceded her arrival.
“My mother brought me the mail,” he said. “She said ‘Look at this letter,’ and it was pretty thick, so that was pretty exciting.”
The envelope’s girth was a good sign because Auburn students told him that thin envelopes held rejection letters, but a stuffed envelope meant acceptance and additional information about the school.
Britt became a veterinarian after graduating from Auburn in 1970. He later became an associate professor of agriculture and the head of the agriculture department at Western.
More veterinary schools and less competition for spots exist today, he said. But many students still get rejected every year because the program doesn’t have enough seats for every student who wants to become a veterinarian.
Some officials hope that increasing the number of Kentucky students getting acceptance letters from veterinary schools could ease the problems caused by a nationwide shortage of food-animal veterinarians.
In September, 36 Kentucky counties lacked any food-animal veterinarians within their borders, according to data on the American Veterinary Association Web site.
Of those counties, 17 held between 5,000 and 25,000 food animals and in one county, more than 25,000 food animals.
This semester, it’s been legislators in Frankfort checking the mail.
Pre-veterinary students and faculty members throughout the state launched a successful letter-writing campaign to persuade legislators to approve paying for an additional 10 slots for the Veterinary Medicine Contract Spaces program, despite a budget shortfall that cut higher education deep.
Legislators approved the additional seats, and the program escaped a veto by Gov. Steve Beshear. Partners in the program now look forward to possibly adding even more slots.
The program currently provides Kentucky students access to 34 reserved spaces for incoming students in veterinary programs at the University of Alabama and Auburn, and two spaces at Tuskegee University.
The Southern Regional Education Board, a nonprofit organization that works with education leaders in 16 states, developed the program because Kentucky doesn’t have a college of veterinary medicine.
Students in the program pay in-state tuition for Auburn and Tuskegee for as long as four years. Kentucky covers the additional contract fees, which comes to $22,400 per student this year. The rate increases to $23,300 during the 2009-10 academic year.
The discounted rates make it easier for Kentucky residents to float the out-of-state tuition that they must pay because Kentucky lacks a veterinary school. Starting a school would cost too much, lawmakers say.
Kentucky gets one of the best deals in the country because students can go to veterinary school for a minimal cost to the state, Britt said. That saves taxpayers from having to float $100 million or more for a veterinary school within the state.
Auburn offered in March to reserve six more contract slots for Kentucky. Tuskegee followed by offering four more. The added spots affect students applying for next year.
Kentucky representatives for several years pursued getting 10 at-large seats added at Auburn, said Gordon Jones, professor of agriculture and chairman of the Pre-veterinary Advisory Committee for Council on Postsecondary Education.
Together, the additional spaces require a $223,000 increase in contract fees for 2009-10.
Some officials said the state can’t swing that at a time when services everywhere face cuts.
Almost all areas of the budget faced cuts to deal with the state’s projected budget shortfall, said John Hicks, deputy state budget director. Higher education budgets across the board face 3 percent cuts with another 3 percent reduction approved by lawmakers.
In his budget proposal to legislators, Beshear suggested cutting the contract spaces program’s two-year budget by more than $1.2 million in the next budget cycle. The program also affects optometry students.
The governor said in his budget address that the state can protect only a few areas, including need-based student financial aid and money for the state Department of Corrections.
The Governor’s Office recognizes the vet program’s value, and officials want to add students, Hicks said. But the cash-strapped state poses potential problems for the program.
But some people say the program needs the money.
CPE, which partners with the Southern Regional Education Board to enact the program, hosted a conference to persuade legislators to expand the program.
It would benefit students and the state’s agricultural economy, said Jim Applegate, vice president of academic affairs for CPE.
CPE can’t lobby legislators, but representatives support paying the contract expenses, Applegate said.
“It’s a good example of how to meet the needs of Kentucky in the most efficient and collaborative way possible,” he said.
The organization included the increase in its budget request. The program’s cost to the state increases every year because of tuition increases.
Now that the state has secured the new 10 spaces, program administrators have started talking with Auburn representatives about possibly adding more spaces, Applegate said.
“They’re very pleased with our students, and they’re very pleased with the program,” he said. “So, it’s a very good partnership.”
Robert Stout, state veterinarian for the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, said some expressed concern that if newly offered slots disappeared, they might never come back. And he said Kentucky might never get back existing slots if the number offered got cut along with budgets.
Before he became the state veterinarian, veterinary schools rejected Stout twice.
Stout found himself caught between disappointment and anger when he got rejection letters from Auburn twice in a row. After a third try and a little improvement in organic chemistry, Auburn and Ohio State University accepted him, he said.
Stout attended Ohio State from 1969 until 1973. The program only offered 16 slots at Auburn and four through contract spaces program when he applied.
So, the food-animal and equine vet of 30 years understands the challenges and competition students face when trying to squeeze their way into graduate school.
Smithfield freshman Wes Korthaus wrote to legislators about his life’s connection to animals through his family’s shorthorn-cattle business since the late 1800s.
He wanted to remind legislators about the importance of veterinary medicine to food safety.
“Our food supply is basically dependent on the veterinary medicine that takes care of them,” he said.
Korthaus started pursuing a career in veterinary medicine while in high school.
But he hasn’t heard any warnings about “envelope thickness,” yet.
Owensboro senior Amanda Gray heard the “big envelope” adage, but she kept an eye on her mailbox for a different letter after applying to Auburn in October.
She applied to Auburn because she would get a deal as part of the contract spaces program.
Gray expected the letter scheduling her spring break interview with Auburn representatives because just about everyone she knows who qualifies academically got a letter.
But she checked her Southwest Hall mailbox every day.
Most students she knows wanted letters mailed to their home address, but Gray wanted to read the response before her parents did. She didn’t want to hear her mom say over the phone that she got rejected.
Pre-vet students must work hard to be competitive for graduate school spots.
Gray averages 18 hours every semester, which is why she can apply for graduate school after only three years at Western.
Veterinary schools expect applicants to show academic excellence while taking daunting course loads. That proves that they can handle graduate school.
For practical experience, Gray started working in animal clinics at age 15, cleaning kennels and observing surgeries.
On Western’s farm, she vaccinates swine and de-worms cattle.
She wrote to legislators to describe the hard work of her and her classmates.
“Some of us don’t have the chance to live our goals because there aren’t enough spots, and we can’t afford to go out of state,” she said. “We’re just so deserving. We work so hard.”
Gray attests to a lot of good feedback, and many legislator’s wrote back saying they’d support the increased spaces. Even those who didn’t offer support said they appreciated student input.
The more people who write, the more likely legislators pay attention to and investigate an issue, said state Sen. Brett Guthrie, R-Bowling Green.
“It doesn’t always sway everybody, but it brings issues to people’s attention,” he said. “I appreciate that.”
Guthrie said letters regarding the contract spaces issue were steady, and the interest helped perpetuate consideration of the issue.
“I think the thing we’re looking at here is the possibility of a long-term gain in veterinary education, and we shouldn’t let one year’s budget stop long-term gain because we might not be offered this but one time,” he said.
Some agriculture professionals hope expanding contract spaces encourages more food-animal veterinarians to work in Kentucky, combating a nationwide decline in the number of people going into the profession.
People who raise livestock without a vet within their counties either bring in vets from surrounding counties or do without veterinary care, Britt said.
Not having a nearby vet can contribute to farmers neglecting preventative medicine, he said.
Britt once investigated a herd in eastern Kentucky that lost about 70 animals because they hadn’t been vaccinated. The farm took about a $100,000 loss and went out of business.
A demographic change in veterinary students in recent years resulted in fewer people becoming feed animal veterinarians, Stout said.
More students than ever are interested in 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. jobs and getting weekends off, he said. There’s also a tendency toward working for existing practices, rather than opening new clinics.
Also, many veterinarians who currently hold regulatory and public health positions will be retiring before long, and those positions will need to be filled, Stout said.
Officials hope increasing the number of spots will help alleviate the need.
So, with budget and contract issues up in the air, Gray and other Western upperclassmen headed to Alabama during spring break to interview for slightly more positions.
Gray hopes to know her fate during this round of selections.
If she got a “thin” letter, she’d probably stay at Western and work on a second degree while applying again and again until she was convinced she couldn’t get in, she said.
She said most of her classmates have just as much dedication.
“We all want this with every fiber of our being.”
Reach Amber Coulter at news@chherald.com.
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