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CORVALLIS - The College of Veterinary Medicine at Oregon State University will begin excavation Sept. 11 on the largest expansion in its history, in major additions and remodeling of Magruder Hall that will enable it to train more veterinary doctors, expand its faculty, improve its statewide service programs and promote scientific research.

The addition of a small animal hospital and clinic will also allow the college for the first time to provide all of the necessary training for its veterinary students, and discontinue a joint program with Washington State University in which subsidy payments were made to WSU and students had received portions of their education out of state.

Construction of the new small animal facility and other additions was made possible by an $8 million allocation from the Oregon legislature during the 2001 legislative session, and the 2003 legislative assembly provided sufficient funding to implement the four-year program. The initiative will help create a new era of veterinary education, research and service for the entire state, officials say.

"Many people worked for years to make this program expansion a reality, and we're grateful to the state legislature, the governor and the people of Oregon for recognizing the pressing need for more doctors and veterinary services in Oregon," said Dr. Howard Gelberg, dean of the college.

"We're still going to be the smallest, most economical veterinary program in the nation, but we'll finally have a complete educational curriculum, an expanding group of experts and a better program of statewide service," he said. "And we'll be keeping the dollars we spend for veterinary education here at work in Oregon."

The Magruder expansion has been reworked several times since it was first conceived, Gelberg said. The largest change is that the new small animal hospital and clinic will now be built as a major 15,000-square-foot addition on the north end of Magruder Hall instead of as a separate building, in the interests of cost efficiency and preventing duplication of resources. Another large addition on the east side of the building - the current front of the structure which faces 30th Street - will provide multi-use classrooms, a new learning center and library, and administrative and faculty offices.

In the small animal hospital and clinic, the addition will feature animal examination rooms, doctor offices, research and teaching laboratories, a kennel area for animals that need to be hospitalized, an intensive care unit, anesthesia and surgical preparation facilities, and many of the other features associated with any modern hospital.

The combined additions will increase the size of Magruder Hall by about 30,000 square feet, and another 10,000 square feet of existing space within the building is being remodeled.

"These additions were motivated by two primary needs," Gelberg said. "We've needed for decades to operate a full program of veterinary medicine at OSU, including the small animal education. Now we can do that, and we can also increase our student enrollment by 33 percent."

The entering students this fall will be the first class to receive their entire educational program in Corvallis, Gelberg said, because the new facilities will be completed by the time these students need them for the small-animal portion of their education.

The new additions will both be two-story structures with a red brick facade that matches the existing Magruder Hall. Construction on both additions will proceed simultaneously, and work on the internal remodeling of Magruder Hall for first-year students is already near completion. During this coming year, while construction of administrative spaces is under way, most administrative offices will be temporarily moved to Dryden Hall, Gelberg said. The physical expansion of Magruder Hall, Gelberg said, is also the prelude to a major expansion of staff and faculty. About 17 new faculty members are anticipated, with many of them arriving about one year from now and providing new expertise in bacteriology, virology, small animal surgery, cardiology, oncology, and other internal medical specialties.

"When all our programs are up and running, we'll be serving as a referral hospital that veterinarians across Oregon, especially many of those in the mid-Willamette Valley, can turn to for assistance with some of their most difficult cases," Gelberg said. "Many people whose pets have severe health conditions will not have to travel so far to get the veterinary care they need. And we'll be far better able to serve our many clients in Oregon's agricultural and animal production industries."

An expanding research base and programs of public service are also anticipated with the arrival of new veterinary experts, Gelberg said. One initiative that's anticipated is a "rapid response" team to investigate animal disease epidemics, bioterrorism threats or concerns about food-borne disease.

And by 2005, the college plans a new partnership with the Oregon Humane Society in Portland. A veterinary clinic will be built and partly staffed by OSU veterinary students, giving them valuable training and allowing the 15,000 or more animals the Humane Society works with to receive improved medical care and make "every animal that comes in the door" potentially adoptable, Gelberg said.

Small animal medicine and surgery is the fastest growing aspect of veterinary care, educators say, and is also growing more complex as more people choose to use complex medical procedures and treatments on their family pets.