Embracing an opportunity to help advance the quality of global academic veterinary medicine, the AAVMC has established a new Council of International Veterinary Medicine (CIVME). AAVMC President Dr. Eleanor Green, the Carl B. King Dean of Veterinary Medicine at the Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences announced the Council's creation during the AAVMC's recent 50th Anniversary Gala Celebration. The goal is to create a structure that will promote more robust collaboration and communication, share best practices and advancements and diffuse innovation in academic veterinary medicine. Learn more.

Veterinary student debt is an increasingly critical issue that can be alleviated by employing a number of different approaches, from a streamlined curricula to increasing scholarship opportunities, higher starting salaries, lobbying federal lawmakers for legislation to lower interest rates on student loans, and creating a national plan for reducing the debt-to-income ratio (DIR). These were among the recommendations offered by a group of committed participants in the FIX THE DEBT...Our Future, Our Responsibility summit. Learn more.

The AAVMC has cancelled plans to hold the 2016 Primary Care Veterinary Educators (PCVE) Conference at Mississippi State University because recently enacted legislation there permits discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation. The PCVE conference will be held in Athens, Georgia, October 20-23, 2016, and will be co-hosted by the University of Georgia and Mississippi State University. This decision is consistent with positions taken when North Carolina and Indiana passed similar legislation. Learn more.

Recent analysis of AAVMC survey data indicates that pre-veterinary students are not being sufficiently served by academic and career advising. Data from the AAVMC's Post-Applicant and Applicant Non-Submit surveys indicate that a substantial number of veterinary college applicants are not receiving any advising before applying. Many of these students reported not having access to qualified or helpful advisors or believed that advising was unnecessary. The surveys also showed that meeting with an advisor did not increase an applicant's optimism about their chances of being accepted to a veterinary medical college. Learn more.

Veterinary medicine needs more great leaders. Expert leadership on many levels and in many areas is required in order to grow the profession and ensure it plays the role it must in serving the greater good. The "Penn Executive Veterinary Leadership Program" provides an excellent opportunity for veterinarians seeking to develop their capacities for effective leadership. Offered in partnership with the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine and the prestigious Wharton School, the 2016 institute will be presented from June 27-30 on the Penn campus in Philadelphia.  Learn more.

The AAVMC has awarded the 2016 Pre-Veterinary Leadership Award to Dustin Servello of Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. It's the inaugural year of the award and the first time that the AAVMC has granted an award to a pre-veterinary student. "Our goal is to identify outstanding pre-veterinary students and provide them with recognition and encouragement," said Director of Admissions and Recruitment Affairs Tony Wynne. "Dustin is an excellent example of the next generation in leadership in veterinary medicine." Learn more.

The application period for the recently created Veterinary Services Grant Program (VSGP) opened on May 4, 2016, and ends on June 17, 2016. Authorized by the 2014 Farm Bill and funded at $2.5 million in the 2016 federal budget, the program is designed to relieve veterinarian shortage situations in underserved areas and support veterinary services. The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) administers the program. Links to the RFA and other information necessary to apply for this competitive grant through Grants.Gov are provided at NIFA's VSGP homepage. NIFA anticipates awards will be announced by September 2016.  Learn more.

In recognition of the power that images can have, and in order to help communicate the important work that veterinarians perform around the world, the Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine is sponsoring a "Veterinarians Around the World" photo competition for veterinary students. Learn more.

People now spend more than $60 billion a year on their pets, according to figures recently released by the American Pet Products Association (APPA). A whopping $60.28 billion to be exact! Those figures were announced in mid-March during the Global Pet Expo in Orlando, Florida, sponsored by APPA and the Pet Industry Distributors Association (PIDA). Veterinary care climbed from $15.04 billion in 2014 to $15.42 billion in 2015, recording growth of 2.5 percent. APPA officials forecast that amount will grow another 3.2 percent to $15.92 billion in 2016. Learn more.

Two new deans have recently been appointed at AAVMC member institutions and a former AAVMC president has been named acting vice president of Ohio State University (OSU). Dr. Baljit Singh has been appointed dean of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Calgary and Dr. Lorin D. Warnick has been appointed the Austin O. Hooey Dean of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University. Dr. Lonnie King has been named acting vice president for agricultural administration and acting dean of OSU's College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. In addition to serving as dean of OSU's College of Veterinary Medicine (2009-2015), King also previously served as dean of the Michigan State University College of Veterinary Medicine and as director of the Center for Disease Control's National Center for Zoonotic, Vector-Borne and Enteric Diseases.

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