Hopes were low as the five bills in the House and Senate created to allow Murray State University to offer veterinary medicine did not move forward. That all changed in a surprising way with Senate Bill 77.
Senate Bill 77 originally had nothing to do with any advanced degrees like veterinary medicine. It was introduced in a Post Secondary Education committee to get rid of the statues stopping Murray State University from offering veterinary medicine as well as the statues stopping two other Kentucky universities from offering different doctorate programs. The bill passed, with guidelines for criteria added that universities will need to meet before offering the programs.
Hutson School of Agriculture Dean Dr. Brian Parr said the bill put them ahead a year.
“I’m extremely happy about it. I think that it gives us a good clear path forward with very few obstacles,” Parr said.
The Kentucky Veterinary Medical Association has pushed back against the bill saying it could put a strain on existing veterinarians. In a Facebook post shared over 400 times by Kentucky veterinarians and residents, the association outlined their key concerns. One of the concerns is about the quality of education. Currently only three of the 30 fully accredited Colleges of Veterinary Medicine in the U.S. use the proposed model for Murray State University.
“I really believe this is going to be a good model and really this model is different from what a lot of people have seen. I don’t think it is inferior, I think in many ways it is superior,” Parr said.
The goal of the model is to give students hands-on experience and internships. Parr also said that many veterinarians have already said they will accept students and will help to educate.
Owner of Little River Veterinary and experienced veterinarian Joanna Freeman has been in support of the school from the beginning. She believes it should “greatly relieve” the veterinarian shortage in Kentucky.
“Giving the students hands-on experience with local vets is a good way for them to get real life experience outside the confines of a classroom,” Freeman said.
Dallas Ahart is a current Murray State University student studying pre-veterinary medicine. He graduates in December 2025 and plans to attend Auburn University. Ahart plans to come back to Kentucky and work with large animals. He says if a vet school at Murray would have been available to him, it would have been hard to choose. Murray State University students currently receive in-state tuition at Auburn. The addition of a veterinarian school may threaten that cost break.
With some minor adjustments, Ahart believes it would strengthen the support for the school.
“The best way to get more vets is to build more vet schools, so having one at Murray makes sense,” Ahart said, “everyone at Murray has been great, the professors and students are great. I have no doubt that the atmosphere would translate into the vet school.”
The target is to open in the fall of 2028 for enrollment.
