Letters of Invitation
Dear SAVMA House of Delegates:
Spring on the Washington State University campus in Pullman is a special time of the year. The surrounding rolling hills of the Palouse area are serene waving seas of green wheat. Our area has been described as “Paradise” and “One of the Most Beautiful Places in the World” with great reason.
It is in this special locale – a small town with a major university and a superb College of Veterinary Medicine in world-class facilities with state-of-the-art equipment – that I invite the Student American Veterinary Medical Association to hold its 1999 Symposium at Washington State University.
Faculty, staff, administrators, alumni, and friends look forward to the opportunity to provide western hospitality – from the opening session to the closing event – to all Symposium attendees. It will be perfect timing since 1999 is also the year in which the WSU College of Veterinary Medicine celebrates its centennial.
I am confident those attending the Symposium will remember their time at WSU for an exceptionally well run event, for the beautiful environment, and for good feelings emanated by the good people who make our University and Pullman so very special.
Sincerely yours,
Samuel H. Smith
President
It is my great pleasure to extend an invitation for the 1999 SAVMA Educational Symposium to be held at Washington State University. I commit the full support of our college to ensure a highly successful symposium. It is particularly timely for the symposium to be held in 1999 for the first time on our campus this year will mark the centennial celebration for Washington State University College of Veterinary Medicine. Our college was established in 1899 and is the fifth oldest veterinary college in the United States and sixth oldest in North America. We have just moved into a new veterinary teaching hospital in September 1996 and will have completed the Animal Disease Biotechnology Facility in 1998.
The college is the lead institution in the Washington, Oregon, Idaho (WOI) Regional Program in Veterinary Medical Education. This unique regional cooperative program has been in existence with Idaho since 1974 and with Oregon since 1979. The program also serves students from the western region sponsored through the Western Interstate Commission on Higher Education (WICHE) as well as a limited number of out-of-state students. Using excellent veterinary medical education resources located in the three WOI states, the program has a breadth and depth seldom seen in a stand-alone school of veterinary medicine.
A successful strategic planning process initiated in 1988 has enabled us to implement several curriculum innovations and other developments as demanded by a changing society. Of curriculum innovations of national prominence can be mentioned the research track, the alternative surgery curriculum with a well developed psychomotor skills laboratory, the diagnostic challenges, international veterinary medicine, the guided preceptorship program, the animal science/veterinary medicine track for education of agricultural animal practitioners, and the aquatic animal health program. The establishment of a Center for the Study of Animal Well-Being provides a foundation for education in applied animal behavior and research on contemporary issues in agricultural animal production. Presentation of some of these program innovations to the SAVMA Symposium participants is an exciting opportunity.
You have my assurance that if the bid for the 1999 Symposium is awarded to Washington State University, our students will have the full support of the college and university as they continue their efforts to plan, organize, and host the 1999 Symposium.
The college and university welcomes the opportunity to host the hundreds of veterinary students from throughout the United States who would attend and participate in this important symposium. I thank the House of Delegates of the Student American Veterinary Medical Association for your consideration of our strong commitment and desire to host the 1999 SAVMA Educational Symposium at Washington State University.
Sincerely,
Borje K. Gustafsson, D.V.M., Ph.D.
Dean and Professor
