Institution: Tuskegee University
GrantNurnber: 5-D34MB00001-10

Specific Objectives

Objectives as Funded and Implemented:

Objective I - Student Performance: To enhance the academic performance of the School's minority students and decrease attrition by expanding the existing academic support programs-, strengthening the teaching-learning methodology used by faculty; using diverse multi-media resources to enhance veterinary medical education; uid by retaining the educational development specialist to provide the expertise necessary to coordinate a centralized teaching-learning program aimed at improving, and maintaining faculty effectiveness and student performance.

Objective 1i - Student Recruitment: To increase the number and quality of minority applicants to the School of Veterinary Medicine by sponsoring two oncampus summer academic enrichment programs for a selected group of promising ninth through twelfth grade minority students; hosting an annual one-day minority recruitment conference and open house; and by making maximum use of alumni by supporting the needs of regional representatives in ten areas of the nation who will, under the supervision of the School's Office of Minority Recruitment, train and direct other alumni to recruit veterinary medical students.

Objective III - Faculty Recruitment and Retention: To improve the Schoors ability to recruit, train, and retain minority faculty members by retaining the 15 faculty positions filled during the 01 to 06 funding Years; adding two new faculty positions in the Department of Clinical Sciences in the 07 Year; continuing to build, as part of on-going curricular reform, the School's growing strength in the areas of molecular biology, immunology, environmental toxicology, public health, epidemiology, small ruminant theriogenology, and information management; obtaining much-needed equipment and the appropriate maintenance contracts; raising and maintaining faculty salaries in an attempt to reach at least 85% of the national average for veterinary schools by 1997; offering specialized training and educational opportunities for faculty through extramural summer training and oncampus professional development; sending technical/ support staff members to professional/ technical workshops/ meetings to enhance their on-the-job performance; retaining the 12-month distinguished professorship position as part of Tuskegee's annual scholar- in- residence program; maintaining one FTE visiting faculty position per year; and by retaining six technical staff positions in the areas of public health/ epidemiology (1), clinical pathology (1), theriogenology (1), veterinary technology (2), and secretarial services (1).

Objective IV - Information Resources: To provide improved access to biomedical and information resources and expand the curriculum to include minority health issues by increasing library holdings by 13% and audio-visual materials by 6% by 1997; maintaining, refining, and enlarging the existing infrastructure that consists of hardware, databases, library information systems, on-line information systems and network resources; developing more advanced systems to build upon and exploit the existing databases and knowledge systems so as to facilitate biomedical problem solving and decision making; training students, faculty, and staff to achieve and/or to enhance their technological abilities to manage biomedical information and to disseminate the technology on biomedical information management developed at the School to others at Tuskegee University and throughout the nation and the world, retaining information management technical/ support staff positions including computer progranuners/ analysts, a media specialist, library personnel, and a specialist in developing computerassisted interactive video instruction; adding three new technical staff members; and by expanding the School's curriculum relative to minority health issues by heightening student awareness of the veterinarian's role in safeguarding the health of people as well as animals.

Objective V - Faculty and Student Research: To facilitate faculty and student research on health issues, particularly those affecting minority groups by arranging for five veterinary medical students to work in veterinary faculty members' research laboratories for 10 weeks during the summer.