Groundbreaking ceremony held for UF's new small animal hospital

Friends of the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine joined administrators, faculty, alumni and students on the UF campus Nov. 21 to celebrate a red-letter day in the life of the college: a groundbreaking ceremony for its new $58 million small animal hospital.

Members of the pet-owning public, including current and former hospital clients as well as representatives from the Florida Veterinary Medical Association, practitioners from all over the state and political dignitaries packed the college's Alec P. and Louise H. Courtelis Equine Hospital auditorium while various speakers offered perspective. Then the group gathered outside, adjacent to the site of the new building, officially known as the Veterinary Research and Education Center, for the symbolic breaking of the ground.

"I'd like to acknowledge Louise Courtelis for her many contributions in getting us where we are today," said the college's dean, Glen Hoffsis. He said Courtelis and her late husband, Alec, helped to mobilize donors on behalf of the college years ago, leading to the present project's ultimate success as well as other endeavors that preceded it, including the equine hospital built in 1994.

"She visualized that we would have the finest hospitals in the country, which now position this college for excellence in the future as far as any of us can see," Hoffsis said.

One of the early fundraising efforts Courtelis led was known as "No More Band-Aids," symbolizing the end of temporary solutions to the small animal hospital's overcrowding problems.Previously the idea was so daunting to college administrators that only sporadic renovations to the existing hospital, in business since the college opened in 1977, were thought possible.

Over a period of several years, the college was able to raise $4.4 million in private gifts, which was then supplemented by state equipment and matching funds to meet the projected cost of construction.

Former college dean Joseph DiPietro, who left UF two years ago to become vice president of agriculture at the University of Tennessee, returned to Gainesville for the groundbreaking. He, too, shared memories of the long road to success and paid tribute to the Courtelises.

"I remember that we were on the heels of the ‘It's Performance that Counts' UF Capital Campaign, which was named after the slogan the Courtelises use at their farm," DiPietro said. That particular fundraising campaign took place in the late 1990s.

"We had a meeting with Mrs. C., which is what I called her. She may have been a bulldog when she got behind something, but I have always called her a fairy godmother for this college."

That meeting led to more discussion about what was needed and how it could be financed, DiPietro recalled."Then we developed a spirit, and then it was one fundraising event after the other," he said.

Dr. Colin Burrows, chairman of the department of small animal clinical sciences and chief of staff of the small animal hospital, acknowledged the efforts of DiPietro and Hoffsis, as well as former executive associate dean Dr. Jim Thompson, for the "countless hours" they spent to bring the project to fruition.

He also paid tribute to the small animal clinical sciences faculty with lines from a sonnet by John Milton. "They also serve who only stand and wait," Burrows said. "This faculty and staff has served for more than 30 years. I don't know how many animals we have treated; it has to be in the hundreds of thousands. We have served, but we have stood and waited."

Soon after the college's inception in the late 1970s, the old small animal hospital experienced sick building syndrome and was placed on limited accreditation by the American Veterinary Medical Association. A new equine hospital and veterinary academic building were subsequently constructed, and hospital services now include cardiology and oncology, among others, Burrows said.

"We've grown not only our patients, but the services we offer, and we are now parallel with human medicine in many areas," he said. "It wouldn't have been possible without the hard work and dedication of many people."

Caty Love, a sophomore veterinary student who is the 2011 class president, said her class would be the first to experience some part of their clinical education in the new building.

"A more impressive hospital makes for more and better veterinarians, and that is the ultimate goal," Love said.

The new facility is expected to be completed by late 2010.