Wednesday, April 29, 2015

IMPACT OF RANDALL TERRY GIFT ON TEACHING VET MED

I had the honor of having the founding Dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine invite me as his guest to attend the announcement by North Carolina Chancellor Randy Woodson of the $16 million gift, the largest gift ever made to the college of veterinary medicine. Randall B. Terry Charitable Foundation made the gift. The current Dean of the college, Dr. Paul Lunn made the statement,“Philanthropy has had a tremendous impact on NC State,” and so it has. I wonder if Dr Lunn really understood the deep significance of his remark when he gave a cursory overview of the distribution of funds, which included $8 million toward scholarships, $5 million toward hiring new faculty, and $3 million as a research endowment. After R. B. Terry died in 2004, the Terry Foundation had given substantial amounts of money to build a small teaching animal hospital. An ex-Dean of the college Dr. Oscar Fletcher is currently a member of the Foundation. Although I am sure that Mr. Terry had established veterinary medicine as the target for gifts, I am sure that Dr. Fletcher played a critical part in formulating the nature of the giving. When I reviewed the distribution of the $16 million dollar gift, including the previous contribution to building the largest small animal hospital in the nation, I was pleased to see the emphasis put on teaching. I am sure most people would not appreciate the significance of that remark. After all, it is a college and a college exists to teach—no one would deny this is irrefutable logic but is it. The founding Dean, Dr. Terry Curtin built the college on a solid foundation of education. When it came time for him to retire, the University Administration replaced him with Dr. Fletcher, who had been the director of a poultry research facility in Georgia. They passed over an eminently qualified individual who had and exemplary history of dealing with educational issues. As the new dean took over, the chairs of the four departments started a brutal merit program for advancement; all of the rewards were going to researchers. The amount of salary increases went to zero for teachers while they doubled for researchers. I used the word ‘brutal’ because there were instances where highly respected faculty were fired for not doing research and great disparities in salaries obviously favoring researchers rapidly appeared in some department. This could not happen without the blessing of the new Dean. After my department chairman told me I was a great teacher but I should stop “wasting time” and let the technologists do the teaching and I should get busy writing research grants, I made the decisions to retire early, which I did. Now twenty-two years later, I can only shake my head in disbelief when I listened to the ceremonies related to the distribution of that $16 million dollar gift and learning that Dr. Fletcher played a seminal part in the distribution of that gift. How could I have been so wrong about the man? At the ceremonies, the new Dean, Dr. Lunn mentioned Dr. Curtin only once in an off-handed manner. I know that Dr. Curtin built the college on a basis of education by insisting all new graduate veterinarians should be well versed in all species and not a single species and based that on teaching diagnosis, treatment, and not research. Of course, research plays a part but that is not the objective of the college. He and his advisor fought against powerful forces, they were successful in etching his philosophy in concrete including the “teaching hospital” and animal teaching units. Department chairs have been working hard to it tear it apart step-by-step, but the teaching college is still there. I find it ironic that a rich philanthropist, by building a small animal hospital and giving a $16 million grant for education under the influence of one of the men who led much of the redirection from teaching to basic research, receive great accolades while the man responsible for it all set hardly noticed in the audience. URL: firetreepub.blogspot.com Comments Invited and not moderated

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