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In 2003 the College crafted a strategic plan to outline our programmatic goals. Now we have completed a comprehensive facilities plan so that new buildings and infrastructure will evolve in a coordinated manner to support our programmatic growth and goals.

Our plans to revitalize our physical plant and increase our veterinary class size by 50 percent will assist us in meeting the growing need for veterinarians, which has been recently emphasized by Senate Bill 914, the Veterinary Workforce Expansion Act. This proposal for a competitive grants program to build infrastructure and support regional centers of excellence among the nation's veterinary colleges responds to an urgent national need for more veterinarians, especially those engaged in public practice areas such as regulatory medicine, public health, diagnostic veterinary medicine, biomedical research, and academia.

The process for the facilities plan began in mid 2004 with selection of an architectural firm, CUH2A, that has experience both with other University of Illinois units and with large biomedical facilities. In fall 2004 faculty, students, and staff participated in the information gathering phase. A first step was a "visioning session" that identified the issues and values used by CUH2A as the basis for their recommendations.

A primary goal is to project an image of the College that matches our vision as "a leader in veterinary and comparative biomedical education, scholarship, and public engagement." Additional goals include creating a southern gateway to the campus, physically linking the basic sciences and the hospital complex, providing people spaces that foster interaction, and preparing for the educational, research, and public engagement initiatives of the future.

After several visits to the College for additional feedback, CUH2A delivered the final plan in April 2005. Among the projects identified in the plan are:

• An "academic commons" with teaching laboratories and classrooms to accommodate a projected 150-student class size; this new building, which will house a lobby, atrium, and other features designed to foster interaction as well as convenient and accessible administrative offices, will create the identity for the veterinary campus and establish the image for the rest of the facilities.

• Additions to the Small Animal Clinic for state-of-the-art surgery suites, imaging, exam rooms, ICU/ER, and student teaching areas to improve the quality of service and care; because funding is currently available for some of these projects, these additions will likely be the first constructed.

• A 1,000-seat auditorium for use not only within the College but also by the University at large to host regional and national meetings;

• A new Equine Sports Medicine facility, featuring a swimming pool for equine recovery and rehabilitation, equine-accessible MRI and CT, and a half-mile racetrack.

• Renovations to vacated space in the Basic Science Building to expand research and diagnostic laboratories.

The plan extends over the next 20 years, mapping out more than 200,000 gross square feet of potential construction. It is an important component of our overall commitment to excellence in academic and scholarly programs and recruitment of outstanding faculty and students.

Please continue to check this site for developments in this exciting phase in the College's evolution. We appreciate feedback and financial support from our key audiences. The new construction will be undertaken to enable us to better meet the needs of the state and the nation, to project an image that keeps pace with our vision, and to ensure that the quality of our facilities is in keeping with the quality of our people and programs.

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