The College of Veterinary Medicine, North Carolina State University: A Personal Perspective of Its Founding

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Chapter vi

Eye on the Goal, 1984–1985

Perception Is Reality

“A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on.
Ideas have endurance without death.” - John F. Kennedy
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By the beginning of the 1984/1985 school year, the milieu of the veterinary school had
changed. We had greater numbers of faculty, students, residents, interns, and graduate students. We recognized that if we relaxed, we would face a withering future. So, we changed,
grew, and adapted. We shifted the focus from building a basic program to adding to the
research and service components and to fine-tuning the professional curriculum. We were
now accepting full-sized classes of veterinary students; the graduate program and clinical residency programs were expanding; faculty members were attracting outside funding to support
research projects; the hospital was receiving more referral patients than we had anticipated
for this stage; and we were being recognized as an excellent school by older and more wellestablished veterinary colleges. We were well on our way to meeting our goals.

Space Pressures
On January 6, 1984, the cafeteria at the SVM opened on a trial basis. No other eating
place was available within a reasonable distance for a mid-day lunch, and we projected that
1,000 to 1,200 people would be entering the building every day. Before we were able to serve
food, though, we found it necessary to seal the brick-paver floor to prevent food particles from

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