Students and staff of the animal science department are preparing for new hands-on opportunities in a veterinary facility opening in the fall.
The Charles and Claire Jacobson Animal Health Center will feature an additional 17,500 square feet on campus of instructional and clinical space with teaching and research labs, according to a webpage from Cal Poly Project News.
“This is the first ever dedicated animal health facility of its kind here,” said Kim Sprayberry, the associate department head of the animal science department.
Sprayberry has spent years consulting on the construction of the veterinary clinic. The project is a decade in the making from retired staff that passed it onto her, she said.
As of now, animal science students run and take classes out of 10 facilities, including an animal nutrition center and a veterinary clinic. The current vet clinic is a converted dairy barn, according to Sprayberry.
“There are several thousand animals on campus at any one time,” she said. “All the labs we teach involve those animals. We’ll be able to do more of that at a modern and high level of care.”
Sprayberry said that Cal Poly is the biggest feeder of students to vet schools in the Western United States. The new health center gives the animal science program more room and equipment to increase capacity for students and standard of care.
“The number one thing that it’s about is our care for students and our care for animals,” Sprayberry said. “Those two passions are met in a building that makes both of these things more effective.”
One of the students looking forward to the animal health center is Austin Tinsley, an animal science junior planning to become a veterinarian.
“I think having a new space to be able to do cool research, learn clinical skills and even surgery skills is going to be a great help for me and my fellow students,” he said.
Tinsley also thinks that the updated environment will help the animals themselves experience less stress.
“Being able to have the new Animal Health Center might help facilitate biomedical research with the new updated technology,” he said.
AnnMarie Cornejo, the CAFES director of communications, shared that faculty and staff will move in early to prepare for fall classes.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony will be held in late August to celebrate the animal health center’s grand opening, and the public is welcome, Sprayberry said.