Caring for all creatures, great and small

Rowan announces plan for New Jersey's first school of veterinary medicine

By Rowan University

January 13, 2022

With help from some furry and feathered friends, University and state officials joined together on Dec. 29 to announce plans for the Rowan University School of Veterinary Medicine—the first veterinary school in New Jersey.

Dogs, goats, birds and even a skunk were on hand to celebrate the historic day. (Above, an owl from Woodford Cedar Run Wildlife Refuge listened attentively at the event.)

Photos of the day, videos about what's to come

Caring for all creatures, great and small

In the field where the new veterinary school will stand, Jacob Wells tended to his goat, Ellie.

Animals from Woodford Cedar Run Wildlife Refuge and their handlers attended the opening. Here, Mike O’Malley, executive director of the refuge, tends to a rehabilitated hawk.

The need for veterinary education

At an outdoor ceremony near where the school’s primary academic and clinical facilities will be built in Sewell, Rowan University President Ali Houshmand, Rowan College South Jersey President Frederick Keating and State Senate President Steve Sweeney spoke about the school to be established on the RCSJ-Gloucester campus. Introduced as the school's founding dean, Matthew Edson, D.V.M, addressed guests eager to learn about the history-making initiative.

In November, the state legislature approved $75 million in funding for a 100,000-square-foot facility that will include academic classrooms, educational and diagnostic laboratories, a teaching hospital, and administrative and faculty offices.

The school, which will address the expected shortage of 15,000 veterinarians across the nation within two decades, plans to welcome its first class of 60 students in fall 2025, pending approval from the American Veterinary Medical Association Council on Education.