Texas Tech Vet School a step closer to opening in Amarillo

AMARILLO, Texas (KVII) — Texas Tech brass and the city of Amarillo officials gathered at City Hall to celebrate the next step in getting a School of Veterinary Medicine in Amarillo during a news conference on Tuesday, June 18.

“This is a win for the entire state of Texas,” Amarillo Mayor Ginger Nelson said.

The vision for the school and the economic impact it can have on the region were covered at the event.

“You really couldn’t find a better location in which to locate a school of veterinary medicine than right here in Amarillo,” said Dr. Lawrence Schovanec, President of Texas Tech University.

Efforts to help bring a school of veterinary medicine to Amarillo are moving forward thanks to funding from the state and donors. The school is projected to have an economic impact in the millions once operational.

“In the next two years we will be hiring 32 faculty veterinarians to provide instruction,” Schovanec said. “Plus we will have to hire all the staff and all of the people involved in the operation.”

More jobs means more people moving to the Panhandle.

“It translates into jobs and obviously with new employment and prospect for new employment through vet sciences school,” said Brad Stark, President of Texas Panhandle Builders Association. “Homes will need to be built for folks moving to Amarillo.”

There are three vet schools in Colorado, Oklahoma and Kansas that are within closer proximity to Amarillo than the one in College Station at Texas A&M University. City leaders of Amarillo and Texas Tech officials tell ABC 7 News a new vet school fills a glaring need for the Texas Panhandle.

“You have the epicenter of the beef industry and you have the dairy industry right here,” said Dr. Tedd Mitchell, Chancellor of Texas Tech University System. “The state population growth and population of animals has just outgrown their capacity to supply that. This is critical service not just for the city., not just for the surrounding area, but quite literary for this entire region.”

A groundbreaking is scheduled in September with plans to open for the first wave of students in fall of 2021.

“It will provide a tremendous opportunity to advance food safety, large animal veterinarian practices in rural Texas but also have a huge economic impact to Amarillo,” Texas District 87 Rep. Four Price, R-Amarillo, said.

The opening of the new school of veterinary medicine will help address the exodus of students who leave the Lone Star State for college and return only to be in serious debt becasuse of out-of-state tuition.

“Now we have students who can go to school at a state funded school,” Nelson said. “The cost for them to get a vet medicine education is reduced drastically, basically by half when they don’t have to go out of state for school.”

Texas Tech officials tell ABC 7 News the new school of veterinary medicine is being built to accommodate student growth, but there is still one more step in the process. Texas Tech awaits approval from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and for third-party accreditation for academics.