Just one day after Gov. Jared Polis signed a bill investing $247 million into health care education facilities, one university broke ground on a new building some of that money will help fund.
Colorado State University will use the $50 million it is receiving under House Bill 24-1231 to construct its new Veterinary Health and Education Complex. The project will cost a total of $230 million, according to CSU officials.
When it is completed in 2026, the new complex will house CSU’s College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, which includes its Doctor of Veterinary Medicine programs. The public land-grant research university celebrated the groundbreaking on May 2 at its Fort Collins campus.
Construction teams will add more than 213,000 square feet to the existing Veterinary Teaching Hospital. The facility originally opened in 1978.
Sue VandeWoude, dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, told the Denver Business Journal that animals with ailments that require more sophisticated treatments than exist at the typical vet’s office are referred to the CSU teaching hospital.
“The facilities needed to support the new types of procedures and diagnostics that we’re conducting and using in our modern veterinary practice,” VandeWoude said of the nearly 50-year-old building. “The building is no longer functional to really optimally deliver that.”
The existing CSU teaching hospital only has a small space for more basic treatments for community members’ pets.
That will change with the new build, which will add a primary care center run by students and increase the number of animals that can be treated there — and the amount of hands-on experience students receive without ever leaving the campus.
“Our fourth-year students will see the clients and they’ll interview them and do the physical exam all under the watchful eye of our of our faculty,” VandeWoude said.
Construction teams will add two new classrooms with capacity for 200 students and eight new exam simulation rooms.
The classrooms used by students in their first and second years in vet school are currently located about a mile away from the spaces used by those in their third and fourth years, VandeWoude said. This project will put them all under one roof.
Some existing facilities, such as the reception area and the labs where animals receive anesthesia and dental work, will be renovated, VandeWoude said. A new, 12,000-square-foot livestock hospital will also be added to the Johnson Family Equine Hospital on CSU’s campus.
The project comes amid a veterinarian shortage in Colorado.
In a CSU survey, 71% of veterinary practice owners in the state said they, on a weekly basis or more often, have to divert clients due to tight schedules or an inability to address an animal’s condition in a “reasonable time frame.”
A majority of practice managers — 78% of them — also reported that registered/certified veterinary technicians are hard to find.
(The survey was sent to 5,758 veterinary professionals on the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies list of licensed veterinarians and veterinary technicians as of August 2023; 736 responded.)
When construction on the new space is completed in 2026, it will increase the size of the veterinary school program from 600 students to 720, an increase of 20%, according to plans posted on CSU’s website dedicated to the facility upgrade.
There are plenty of potential students ready to fill those extra slots. VandeWoude said CSU’s veterinary school receives between 3,000 and 4,000 applications each year.
The school will also hire more staff for the new facilities. VandeWoude anticipates a new director for the primary care hospital and up to 12 new veterinary technicians to assist there. She also said the school could hire up to six new faculty members.
The vet shortage was not the only impetus for the upgrades. CSU decided to revamp its veterinarian school curriculum back in 2016, according to VandeWoude.
As the school adds more lessons, such as what future vets need to know to run a business, the faculty knew facilities would need to be top-notch to give students the best shot at absorbing everything, she said.
Clark & Enersen is the architect and designer on the project. JE Dunn is handling construction.
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