This year has been unlike any our college has seen before. Along with the nation and the world, we have faced unprecedented challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. Events this past year have also led us to refocus our efforts to address diversity and racial justice, wellbeing in the veterinary profession and financial pressures in higher education. The response to the pandemic forced everyone to reconfigure even the most basic elements of our work and study, veterinary services and public outreach. Many of our typical measures of progress were disrupted — from the symposia we host to the continuing education events we offer and the research we conduct.

It follows that the annual report for fiscal year 2020 is slightly different from those preceding it; in some areas of reporting, we do not have updated data. In other areas, progress has been slowed.

Despite these changes, the college has proven resilient and shown its true strengths more vibrantly than ever before. Our researchers have been at the forefront of Cornell’s SARS-Cov-2 research. Our students have successfully adapted to a hybrid of online and in-person instruction as our faculty have pivoted many courses to digital platforms. And our hospitals and diagnostic lab have continued to serve thousands of clients across the state and country, working in totally unprecedented circumstances. And our college supported university reopening plans by providing extensive COVID-19 testing. Our latest issue of ‘Scopes magazine describes the incredible efforts all our college community members have made during the pandemic, and I encourage you to read the compelling stories that data points in this report cannot capture.

Our fiscal year 2020 Annual Report keeps the same structure from the previous year — reporting our successes in the college’s six strategic plan initiatives:

• Educational Innovation and Career Readiness
• Business and Entrepreneurship
• Transformative Research
• Advances in Animal, Human and Ecosystem Health
• Health Begins Here
• Strengthening Our Foundation

I feel fortunate to be part of a profession that has so much to offer humanity, now more than ever. Our roles as veterinarians, biomedical researchers and public health experts are truly essential in our world — especially today as we unite to find solutions to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lorin D. Warnick, D.V.M., Ph.D.'94
Austin O. Hooey Dean of Veterinary Medicine

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