response to program review report - LSU School Of Veterinary ...

VCS is a “high-faculty turnover” department consistent with clinical departmentsin all or most other schools and colleges of veterinary medicine. Such highturnover is not conducive to targeted program development. Further, theemployment market for clinical faculty (many open positions and relatively fewapplicants) is different than that of PhD biomedical scientists (large applicantpools). The AVMA, the AAVMC, and the AAVC recognize that the profession isat a crisis point in this respect. Many of our faculty searches do not allow us topick and choose from a large applicant pool, so that rather than discipline-relatedprogram building, VCS struggles to maintain faculty numbers to cover the basicteaching and service assignments. Among veterinary school faculty in otherstates, the LSU SVM and the State of Louisiana in general do not enjoy thegreatest reputation (chronic underfunding would be a major reason for thisimpression), so we often hear of faculty at peer institutions advising their juniorfaculty to not even consider an academic career at LSU. Usually if we can getcandidates to visit, they are pleasantly surprised. However, our applicant poolsare routinely smaller than those for equivalent positions at other SVM’s.Despite that, an extremely strong cadre of faculty has been recruited into VCS.The department does not have a wide range of specialty services like otherschools but the fundamentals are served well, plus we have strong programs inophthalmology, dermatology, and cardiology. The recent suddenly reducedfaculty staffing in companion animal surgery is regrettable but this phenomenonis well known at other SVM’s and is a sign of the times. We are recruiting avidlyfor this service.36