Amid budget crunches, the College of Veterinary Medicine has been forced to cut programs and use nontraditional sources of income while attempting to uphold its major areas of excellence.

The state helps subsidize the College of Veterinary Medicine, but state appropriations have not been consistently rising with the expenditures of the college. Twenty years ago, state appropriations paid for 80 percent of the $11 million budget, while last year, the state provided for 40 percent of the college’s more than $40 million budget, officials said.

The other 60 percent of the college’s expenses came from the teaching hospital, the diagnostic lab, research and tuition. As expenses continue to rise, the big choice officials face is deciding what programs are going to be cut with the upcoming budget cuts.

“We have to focus on our areas of excellence and on areas that carry high priority for students at Iowa State, and sacrifice areas that are not as high priority,” said Norman Cheville, dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine.

The major strengths of the college are production animal medicine, infectious diseases, public health and neuroscience, he said.

“In production animal medicine and livestock diseases, we certainly rank as one of the top veterinary schools in the nation,” Cheville said. “Those are the areas [in which] the faculty has decided we must maintain our national and international excellence.”

Cuts are likely to be felt by students and faculty who work in aquatic medicine, diseases of fish, diseases of wildlife and exotic species of animals, he said.

“[These areas are] very popular with the students, but it’s not our area of great strength,” Cheville said.

Because of the budget crunch, the college experienced the elimination of funds for the Veterinary Medical Research Institute.

A five-year plan was drawn up in 1999 for the college in conjunction with the university’s five-year plan. The plan outlined the goals and strategies of the college.

The budget problems have caused some of the goals to shift in emphasis, but the college is “staying true” to the plan, said Don Reynolds, associate dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine.

“We place more emphasis on providing quality faculty,” said Reynolds, who headed the drafting of the strategic plan.

The tuition of a veterinary medicine student is about double that of the general tuition at Iowa State. Out-of-state students pay $27,048 in tuition per year while in-state students pay $10,536 per year in tuition. With courses such as surgery, anatomy and reproductive medicine, the higher tuition is necessary, Cheville said.

“A surgery course can run as high as $300,000,” Cheville said. “That’s huge!”

While the tuition is still less expensive than over half of the other 27 veterinary medical schools in the country, Cheville said he does not anticipate tuition increases independent of the university.

“I think we have reached the limits of tuition,” he said. “You have to look at what the students’ salaries are upon graduation.”

Reynolds said the future of the college can be flexible.

“We have taken our budget hits in the last few years and we are optimistic about the future,” he said.