"We offered a good educational program in 1990 and offer a better one today. Our strengths are in a technology-rich, hands-on program that provides a strong science background for a clinical program that includes all major species."

 

Passages: My 10 Years as Illinois Dean
By Dr. Ted Valli

Soon I will pass the torch to a new dean and a new decade. This, my 11th year as dean, is a good time to take stock of where we have been and where we are going.

When my wife Carroll and I came to Illinois on January 1, 1990, the economy of the University reflected that of the country: shrinking budgets, layoffs, and downsizing. At that time the state budget for the College was about $11 million. Today it is just over $15 million. 

In 1990 we admitted 80 students per class. The class of 2004, entering this fall, will have 110. During the early ’90s the job market remained strong despite calls within organized medicine for the closing of some schools in hopes of raising demand for—and the income of—practitioners. With a resurgent economy have come larger private and corporate practices. This year some graduates were starting at double the entry-level salaries of a decade ago. 

We offered a good educational program in 1990 and offer a better one today. Our strengths are in a technology-rich, hands-on program that provides a strong science background for a clinical program that includes all major species. The future will hold more opportunity to prepare student for public practice and research careers. 

As confirmed by the recent faculty retreat on the curriculum, the College is seeking to strengthen the program in the areas of nutrition, economics and marketing, and animal behavior. Dr. Fred Troutt, former clinical medicine department head, will help bring a clinical emphasis to the teaching of nutrition. Soon we will have three DVM/MBAs on faculty to teach business- and management-oriented courses. 

These curricular changes will bring no diminution of the strong emphasis on skilled clinicians teaching a thorough hands-on patient examination. My years as a self-employed practitioner have made me a dean with a healthy appreciation of the importance of clinical training.

Technology has brought huge changes to the delivery of information over the past decade. In 1990, computers served college management and major research needs, but there were few PCs and no network. Our first network was built with declining funds and some creative grantsmanship by Dr. Ron Smith and others. 

The College provided ethernet cards and computers to the first members of the newly created Information Management Committee to popularize the acceptance of electronic communications and central storage of data. Many on the committee were not enthusiastic, but the rest of the faculty complained that everyone should have been included! Today, we have nearly 20 servers and a network of more than 800 users. Our Web site receives 100,000 hits a month.

Classroom developments have come a long way from the slide carousel and overhead projector. With early assistance from Hill’s, we equipped all classrooms with computer-driven ceiling-mounted video projectors. The projectors are now single-lens LCDs with enough output for a bright image without darkening the room. Soon we will offer courses online for both DVM students and alumni. 

We have new major information systems for both the clinical and diagnostic services and are in the process of gaining universal digital image capture for the College and an array of clinical and research imaging systems. Clinical pathology “rounds” consist of presentation of stored images. The same technology will be operative in anatomic pathology by fall, and our area for gross tissue examinations will be a model for other schools.

I have had good innings with organized veterinary medicine at the state and national levels. I’m a proud member of the Eastern Illinois, Illinois State, and Chicago veterinary medical associations. I was president of the American Association of Veterinary Medicine Colleges and chair of the Board of Veterinary Medicine for the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges in 1997. I currently serve on the AVMA task force charged with rewriting our professional guidelines for alternative therapies.

Carroll has made tremendous contributions to the deanship and profession. We determined on the outset that our home would be a focal point for renewing relationships between the College and the emeritus faculty and alumni. Each year, we have entertained both the incoming and graduating classes of the DVM and EVP programs, and since 1992, the classes celebrating their 40th reunion and the faculty and graduate students at the year-end. We have met a lot of people and have made many friends.

The return of the 40-year alumni to the University and the College has been an enlightening and gratifying experience. At each reunion we have urged alumni and spouses to recount their student and professional careers. While they note with pride and awe the growth of the College, there is universal recognition that they were well-educated to meet societal needs in their era. The alumni emphasize that, while the College had humble beginnings in terms of bricks and mortar, the faculty—still much admired—prepared them well for successful careers.

One of the sadder aspects of our tour of service has been the passing of some of the stalwarts who built the College and its programs–Drs. Loyd Boley, Al Schiller, Jack Manning, Norman Levine, and Ray Hatch to name a few. Their legacy lives on.
I see a bright future for the College and look forward to a smooth transition to a new dean and a new assignment. I plan to remain on the faculty and serve in pathology and clinical pathology and to use the first sabbatical of my career to write a book. 

I thank all of you for your support of the school and my work as dean.