 The
school admitted its first students to the professional curriculum during
the 1973–74 academic year. The original entering class consisted of 36
students, all residents of Louisiana. Class size increased significantly
in subsequent years. The school participates in the Southern Regional
Education Board’s program for education in veterinary medicine. Training
contracts provide a limited number of entering spaces for qualified
candidates from Arkansas. In addition, a limited number of highly
qualified, nonresident applicants are admitted under the school’s special
admission policy.The school has an
excellent faculty supported by modern equipment. The Veterinary Medicine
Building, located on the west side of the campus near the Mississippi
River, was dedicated in October 1978. It
houses three academic departments plus the Veterinary Medicine Library, the
Veterinary Teaching Hospital & Clinics, and the Louisiana
Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory. The facilities at the Veterinary Teaching Hospital
& Clinics are used as laboratories where students are introduced to
clinical cases and animal disease problems, as well as to methods and
techniques used in their solution. The clinical case load at the hospital,
in-field services, and herd health programs offer ample opportunities for
the education of the complete veterinarian.
The school library, located in the Veterinary Medicine
Building, provides a resource sufficient to support programs in instruction,
research, and service.
The LSU program has met all essential
requirements for an acceptable school as established by the Council on Education
of the American Veterinary Medical Association, the
national accrediting agency for veterinary medical education in the United
States. Full accreditation was granted in 1977 and reaffirmed in 1984, 1991, 1998,
and 2006.
In addition, a certificate
of commendation for excellence from the Louisiana Board
of Regents was awarded in 1980. In
2008, the AVMA Council on Education revised the status
to limited accreditation pending the expansion of equine
infectious disease isolation facilities and
the
development of additional objective criteria to document
the excellence of graduates of the school.
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