Texas Tech hosts ribbon cutting for new Vet School in Amarillo

Texas Tech University’s School of Veterinary Medicine held a ribbon cutting on their new Amarillo campus Friday. The ceremony unveiled the school's $90 million state-of-the-art facilities.

This is the first new veterinary program in the State of Texas in more than a century. Texas Governor Greg Abbott said that this day was far overdue, and the addition of this school will add to Texas’ list of prestigious tier-one research universities.

“Now, in the past eight years, Texas has more than doubled the number of tier-one universities in our state. Texas now has more tier-one universities than any state in the United States of America,” Abbott said.

Abbott went on to say that he thinks the addition of this school will be beneficial for the agriculture industry not only in West Texas but in Texas as a whole.

Dr. Lawrence Schovanec, Texas Tech University President, agreed.

“They let the facts speak for themselves, and the facts said, we needed more veterinarians in this state. And so, it was mentioned today by one of the speakers that this is not going to solve that problem, but this was a necessary step,” Schovanec said.

On a local level, this college will also greatly impact the City of Amarillo. Mayor Ginger Nelson said she expects to see a big return on the investment of citizens' tax dollars that helped make this school a possibility.

“We will just start with the economic benefit that we get from having the school open in our city every year. That is 76 million dollars for 2021, 2022, and keep on going," said Nelson. "That is 76 million dollars every year indefinitely. So, you can see pretty quickly we get a return on that dollar economically.”

Texas Tech System Chancellor Tedd Mitchell said that opening this school in Amarillo was a big victory for West Texas. He hopes Texas Tech and Amarillo set an example for how West Texas should work together.

“There are more state representatives in the city of Houston than there are in all of West Texas. So, we will either build things together out here to benefit everybody, or we will be picked apart by folks that have nothing against West Texas, they just looking at their own interest there.”

The inaugural class started in the fall of 2021 with 64 students. That number is expected to grow by at least 10% each year for the next several years.