Alumni Relations

Dean's Message—Summer 2009

Celeste and
Dean Deborah Kochevar

It has been quite a ride this year, but I am pleased to report that we have completed our Fiscal Year 2010 budget plan.

Thanks to the efforts of our alumni, friends, faculty, staff and students, and to the support of key legislators and the university, we regained slightly less than half of our anticipated state appropriation. These funds, and $9.5 million of capital investment by the state in the New England Regional Biosafety Laboratory, were essential to completion of the budget. The coming year will be lean, but we will work strategically to maintain and advance excellence in our many dimensions.

It isn't all about budgets and I am pleased to note that this year, for the first time, a Tufts student, Ms. Rebecca Steers, is the elected, national president of the Student AVMA. Ms. Steers is doing excellent work both in representing her peers and Tufts University.

A program that we expect to garner positive attention is the new Master of Science in Conservation Medicine (MCM). This innovative program will tap faculty members across the university and beyond to educate health professionals, including veterinarians, to the needs of animals, humans and the environment we all share. For more information on the MCM, please contact Dr. Gretchen Kaufman.

We completed construction on the new Agnes Varis Auditorium and are finding it to be a versatile and elegant facility for cultural programs, seminars and, starting in the fall, veterinary professional classes. Dr. Varis continues to leave her tremendously generous mark and we are most grateful for her dedication to our school. Construction continues on our new equine isolation ward and we are planning an evening of continuing education on infectious diseases to celebrate its completion in September. This important new facility is being constructed through the generosity of the Manton Foundation.

Please stay in touch and visit if you can. You are our best ambassadors and are always welcome here at the Cummings School.