Football isn’t the only contest going on in the Southeastern Conference; five of the conferences universities are now competing for veterinary alumni dollars.
The Hill’s SEC Veterinary Medicine Alumni Challenge pits Tennessee against Auburn, Georgia, LSU and Mississippi State in a friendly competition. Hill’s Pet Nutrition is sponsoring the challenge in which the colleges must strive to get the highest percentage of alumni donors.
We are excited about this partnership among Hill’s and the colleges of veterinary medicine in the SEC, Michael Blackwell, dean of the college of veterinary medicine, said. This is a wonderful opportunity to highlight our new development program. In the true competitive spirit that exists, we know our alumni will step up and do their part to support the effort.
Although all five schools will benefit from the challenge, the winning school will receive the largest percentage of the $25,000 prize money. All of the schools selected to participate in the challenge are public universities where state budgets have not kept up with the rising costs of vet school.
Typically, funds are given to the different vet schools to provide scholarships, purchase equipment and to keep up with technological advances. At UT, the money will help vet students offset the cost.
This is the first time Hill’s has jumped in to do something like this, Claire Eldridge, director of development at the college of veterinary medicine, said. They realized that tuition is getting high; the average debt load is $50,000 per student. Hill’s wanted to challenge alumni to get involved and promote giving.
Dr. Jim Brace works with the scholarship committee and wants the award to be $4,000 per vet student, she continued. Now, students receive about $1,000.
The competition, which runs through June 30, 2004, is based on percentage of graduates donating; gifts $25 or more will count toward the totals.
For Hill’s, the endeavor is a win-win situation. The vet student gets money to help pay for school, and Hill’s gets their future business due to exposure.
With the competition, Hill’s will be visible to the student from the start, Eldridge said. Because students will recognize the name from the challenge, students might use their products later in their practice.
Since UT strives to be the best, the vet school is confident that they come out on top.
I fully expect UT to win because of the commitment alumni have to this program and to this college, Blackwell said.
