Greetings,
It’s hard to believe that March marks eight months since I arrived in Gainesville as dean. In that time, I have attended my first UF-CVM Alumni Council meeting and homecoming barbeque, and have hosted my first alumni reception and Dean’s Circle events at the North American Veterinary Conference. I’ve learned my way around campus (more or less) and have spent lots of time traveling the state to visit local veterinary medical associations, individual alums and friends of the College, and other external stakeholder groups.
Closer to home, I have really enjoyed getting to know members of the UF CVM family on campus and becoming familiar with their roles, responsibilities, and the special areas of teaching, clinical service, and research interest that exist here. I continue to be impressed by the caliber of our people and programs; we have an incredible foundation on which to build our future.
A key focus in my first six months was amassing data for our new college strategic plan, an important step in identifying our priorities and developing action plans around top issues. Starting in October, we reached out for input from many internal and external stakeholder groups, including faculty, staff, students, alumni, organized veterinary medical associations and others who have a strong interest in the success of the college. We sought measurable data from these groups through a series of survey questions, the results of which were then collated (with assistance from a consultant) and are now posted on our website.
In addition, we conducted numerous forums, meetings, small group gatherings, and interviews to validate, complement, and complete the survey results. Subsequently, our executive leadership team held a retreat to sort through the data and pinpoint areas where we as a college can have the greatest impact as we move forward together. The strong consensus that emerged from all of these activities was that our vision for the UFCVM is to become a truly preeminent College of Veterinary Medicine in each of our core missions of teaching, research and clinical service.
How will we do this? Well, we are now in the next phase of the planning process, and are actively identifying, fine-tuning and focusing our priorities. These priorities will clearly become investments of time, resources, energy, and passion as we work toward our vision of preeminence in teaching, research, and clinical service. As we progress, we will strive to keep you both engaged and informed.
As I’ve said before, I deeply appreciate all of your support and enthusiasm in this initiative. Because of the broad-based nature of the process, we all have a critical stake in the outcomes. Your participation and feedback continues to be vital for our success.
Don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions along the way. Stay tuned for additional updates in future issues; we will have much more to share with you in the near future. In the meantime, I look forward to working with all of you as we move toward implementation of our plans.
Go Gators!
James W. Lloyd, D.V.M., Ph.D.
Professor and Dean