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TTU Veterinary School, five years in: first graduates return to meet needs in West Texas communities
Texas Tech University's veterinary school graduated its first class of doctors five years after welcoming its inaugural students on August 18, 2021, and those new vets are already stepping into rural animal care roles across West Texas where shortages have long been a problem. The school's path to opening was anything but quick.
The school's path to opening was anything but quick. Conversations about launching a veterinary program at Texas Tech stretched back years, repeatedly stalling over funding gaps or getting shelved entirely. The effort gained real traction in 2015, when serious planning finally began and key decisions started falling into place.
One of the biggest early calls was where to put the school. The answer was Amarillo, not Lubbock, which put the program squarely in the Texas Panhandle rather than on the main Tech campus. Guy Loneragan, now serving as dean, was among the small group working through those early details and has said the Amarillo location is a point of pride for the program.
For West Texas ranchers and rural pet owners alike, the shortage of veterinarians has been persistent and real. Having a pipeline of graduates trained specifically in this region means those new vets already know the landscape, the livestock, and the communities they are serving.
Texas had exactly one veterinary school, at Texas A&M, for decades before Tech's program opened its doors.
Common questions
When did Texas Tech's vet school open and when did the first class graduate?
- The school welcomed its first students on August 18, 2021, and has now graduated its first class of doctors five years later. Planning for the program dates back to 2015, when serious efforts to launch it finally gained traction.
Why does West Texas need more veterinarians?
- Rural animal care shortages have long been a problem across West Texas. The Texas Tech veterinary school was developed specifically to address that gap, and its first graduates are already stepping into those underserved rural roles.
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