Committee approves feasibility study to explore Doctor of Veterinary Medicine program at Windward Community College

The House Committee on Agriculture & Food Systems voted April 1 to pass HCR 195 and HR 188, requesting the University of Hawaii system establish a veterinary medicine expansion working group to explore the feasibility of a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine program at Windward Community College.

The committee adopted the chair's recommendation to pass the measures with amendments; the record states the committee incorporated two suggested amendments from the University of Hawaii. The recommendation was adopted in the decision-making session with the members present voting to pass; Representative Quinlan was excused.

Deborah Halbert, vice president for academic strategy at the University of Hawaii, said the system stands on its written testimony and requested the working group include a system representative because the resolution had expanded to involve multiple campuses, including Hilo, Manoa and Windward. "It would be useful for us to have a system presence," Halbert said, noting the request as an addition to the prior testimony.

Nicole Galassi of the Hawaii Cattlemen's Council said the council supports the measures because Hawaii currently has no veterinary schools and a local DVM program would help attract and retain veterinarians in the state. "Access to veterinarians is crucial to livestock operations, and we need professionals who are willing to work in Hawaii and to especially service those rural areas," Galassi said.

Halbert told the committee that while university resources are stretched, the resolution calls for a feasibility study and campuses have already begun informal coordination. She said the system has a new workforce development director who could provide additional support, but did not identify new dedicated funding for the study in the hearing record. Committee members asked whether the expanded scope of the working group could be accomplished without additional resources; Halbert said it would be challenging but that she believed the campuses could put together the feasibility work within the proposed timeframe.

The committee record lists overall support: nine testifiers in support, zero in opposition, and one comment on the hearing record; the companion HR 188 HD1 showed six in support, zero opposition. The adopted amendments were described in the record as the two suggested by the University of Hawaii; the transcripts do not detail the text of those amendments.

The actions direct the University of Hawaii system to form the working group to study feasibility. The resolution requests a study and coordination among campuses; it does not appropriate funds for starting a DVM program or set a construction or hiring timeline.