4 Noelle Cockett

The first time I heard about the two plus two was when I was the dean at the College of Agriculture, and I met with Paul Rasmussen, Tom Baldwin, and Kerry Rood. They had a double-sided one-pager about the program, and I was intrigued by it.

I remember the number one question I had was why would Washington State want to partner with us instead of just having students from the first year to the fourth? And the reason they gave was that we had capacity here at USU in terms of classrooms and animals and faculty, and WSU did not. But if they were to increase their program by the number we were proposing, they’d be able to make it work.

Then my question was why Utah State, and it was because we already had a strong relationship with them. We were taking some of their graduates on as residents at the Utah Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, and WSU had commented that whenever they recruited a student from Utah State into their fouryear program, they were always one of their very best students. They were industrious and studious, and this would let WSU expand their number of USU graduates.

The next question was cost. They threw out some value, and it was many millions. And I thought, my gosh, where are we going to get that money? They said that the legislature would fund it. I’d had some dealings with the legislature, so I said, “Man, this is a big price sticker. Let me talk to you guys about how this works. First, we need a strong advocate.”

At that time, Senator Lyle Hillyard was co-chair of the Executive Appropriations Committee for the Utah Legislature. He was from Cache Valley and had always supported Utah State. I don't remember who talked to him, but it was quickly relayed that he wanted to do this.

Then the faculty had Ruby Ward, who’s a professor in applied economics, do a model with tuition and the number of students and faculty, and she and Kerry Rood came in and showed me their spreadsheet. We had to tweak the numbers, and there were some people grumbling that the program wouldn’t be as good with less money. But I said, “We want to get it done, don't we? So sharpen your pencil.”

Neil Abercrombie had also just started as the vice president for government relations, and he was more tuned into the state government, whereas prior to that, it was Michael Kennedy, who was more tuned into the federal. And Neil said we should try that year because if we did, then the legislators could get used to the amount we're asking for even if they didn’t fund it then.

But then it just it started rolling, and legislators like Senator Hillyard, John Mathis, and another whose name I can’t remember started convincing the others. The members of the rural caucus were all supportive, and soon more than half of the legislators were saying this was a great idea.

Incidentally, Neil Abercombie was also our vice president until this last year. And he said he felt like his career had been bookended with the vet program. On the front end was the two plus two, and on the back was the College of Veterinary Medicine.