LOGAN — Utah Governor Spencer Cox, the president of Utah State University, legislators and educators broke ground today at 1400 North 1200 East to build USU’s Veterinary Medical Education Building — which will house Utah’s first four-year veterinary medicine program that will begin in 2025.
Utah Governor Spencer Cox, Utah State President Elizabeth Cantwell and others participated in a ceremonial groundbreaking for USU’s Veterinary Medical Education Building. The building will be located at approximately 1400 North 1200 East in Logan and is scheduled to be completed by 2026. Photo by Cimaron Neugebauer.
Under a canopy on fallow land, Gov. Cox told a crowd of Cache Valley residents, USU students, educators, farmers and veterinarians the success of Utah has everything to do with Utahns who care about each other and make things better than they found it.
“That’s what you do in Cache Valley,” the USU alumnus said. “That’s what you do at Utah State University. And I am proud to be an Aggie.”
Cox told the crowd he was surprised to learn many years ago when he was going to college at USU that not only was there not a vet school at the university known for agricultural science, but there wasn’t even a vet school in Utah.
“It just didn’t make sense,” he said.
Utah Governor Spencer Cox, Utah State President Elizabeth Cantwell and others participated in a ceremonial groundbreaking for USU’s Veterinary Medical Education Building. The building will be located at approximately 1400 North 1200 East in Logan and is scheduled to be completed by 2026. Photo by Cimaron Neugebauer.
It left an impression on his mind. So, after he got into politics, he wanted to help change that.
“This was something that I wanted to see happen, something that I pushed for.”
USU is known for its medical school, business school and many other programs, but it never had the missing piece and it didn’t make sense, Cox lamented.
“Now it finally makes sense that we are closing that gap and I’m so grateful that it is here at my alma mater that we are doing this.”
Gov. Cox and USU President Elizabeth Cantwell said the program will help keep talent in Utah and bring more jobs to the state, which will help solve an ongoing shortage of veterinarians in Utah, specifically in rural communities.
The process to get the program has been 117 years in the making for the state’s land-grant university. In 2022, the Utah State University Board of Trustees granted approval for the program. That began to solidify more than a century of hopes and wishes into reality.
Utah Governor Spencer Cox, Utah State President Elizabeth Cantwell and others participated in a ceremonial groundbreaking for USU’s Veterinary Medical Education Building. The building will be located at approximately 1400 North 1200 East in Logan and is scheduled to be completed by 2026. Photo by Cimaron Neugebauer.
USU President Elizabeth Cantwell told the crowd at the groundbreaking this is only the beginning.
“Do not underestimate Northern Utah,” she said in regards to the future growth potential of businesses and jobs.
“You watch us grow,” Cantwell challenged the crowd. “In the life sciences, in BioTech, a lot of that — I’m here to predict will happen here and it will happen across northern Utah.”
Once the accreditation process is completed, students will begin taking courses toward the new four-year degree program as soon as August of 2025.
Cantwell said by the time prospective students are done with the program, they will be learning in the new building, which is set to be completed by 2026.
“We will be delivering on the promise of the land grant university,” Cantwell said, “which is — we will fill the gaps that the state has.”