On March 19, 1974, Governor Winfield Dunn signed into law a bill unanimously passed by the Tennessee House of Representatives and passed 32 to 1 in the Tennessee Senate establishing a veterinary college at the University of Tennessee. The UT Board of Trustees had authorized a study in June 1967 to determine whether a veterinary college should be established, and the study recommended the establishment in 1968.
The Tennessee Legislature appropriated $16.6 million in 1975 to construct a 250,000-square-foot building for the veterinary college, and the building was complete as students returned to UT in September 1978. The first class of 40 students (from 201 qualified applicants) was admitted in September 1976. Full accreditation of the college by the American Veterinary Medical Association’s Council on Education came in spring 1979 following a 1978 initial review by the American Animal Hospital Association. The first class of 39 students graduated in June 1979.
Originally, the board of trustees had approved an admissions plan of 80 students per year, with 50 being from Tennessee. In 1977 the board amended the plan to a 60 percent in-state proportion. But because of the backlog of Tennessee residents applying for admission, they decided that only Tennessee residents would be admitted until 1979. As part of the board’s discussion, the Daily Beacon reported (September 26, 1977) that Trustee Ben Douglas inquired, “Can’t we hold to a very minimum the number of women in that class? I just can’t see a woman doctorin’ a bull.”
The college changed from a three-year to a four-year curriculum, as UT moved from a quarter to a semester format. The college’s 100,000th patient, a miniature schnauzer from Kentucky, was honored October 4, 1995, in an informal ceremony.