New Jersey Is Betting Another $6 Million on Its First Veterinary School

State lawmakers delivered $6 million in new funding to Rowan University's Shreiber School of Veterinary Medicine, adding to a major public and private investment in New Jersey's first veterinary school.

New Jersey spent decades without a veterinary school of its own. Students who wanted to earn a DVM had to leave the state for their education, often traveling hundreds or thousands of miles to pursue a career in veterinary medicine.

State leaders are betting that Rowan University can change that—and this week they backed that bet with another $6 million.

A bipartisan group of New Jersey lawmakers gathered Tuesday at Rowan University's new Shreiber School of Veterinary Medicine building to present a ceremonial $6 million check representing state funding secured for the school. The presentation took place during a Chamber of Commerce Southern New Jersey event featuring Rowan University President Ali Houshmand and Shreiber's founding dean, Dr. Matthew Edson.

The money represents more than another line in the university's budget. It is part of a much larger effort to establish a veterinary workforce pipeline inside a state that, until recently, had never had one.

For Sen. Troy Singleton, a Rowan alumnus and one of the legislators who advocated for the funding, the significance is difficult to overstate.

“So many young men and women who aspire to take care of our animals, both domestic and our working animals, used to have to go across the river or across the country to get that education,” Singleton said. “And now that education stands here and it's kept home.”

From Farmland to Veterinary School

The Shreiber School of Veterinary Medicine is still remarkably new. Rowan commemorated the opening of the school in 2025, making it New Jersey's first and only veterinary school and one of just 36 veterinary schools in the United States.

Getting there required a massive investment.

In 2021, the New Jersey Legislature approved $75 million to help construct the school's primary academic and clinical facility. Private philanthropy added another major piece when businessman and longtime Rowan supporter Gerald B. Shreiber pledged $30 million to support the veterinary school and student scholarships. The school was subsequently named in honor of Shreiber, a longtime supporter of animal welfare and education who has since died.

Now the additional $6 million secured by lawmakers is helping support the next phase of the school's development.

Singleton described Shreiber as a product of collaboration between the university and political leaders across New Jersey, calling the veterinary school the state's “crown jewel.”

“It is not by happenstance that this school has been able to rise out of farmland to be the premier higher education institution in the state of New Jersey,” he said. “And it’s done through collaboration and partnership.”

The delegation presenting the funding included Majority Leader Louis Greenwald, Sens. Singleton, John Burzichelli and James Beach, along with Assembly members David Bailey Jr., Heather Simmons, Carol Murphy and Cody Miller.

Why New Jersey Wanted Its Own Veterinary School

Building a veterinary school isn't simply about giving New Jersey students somewhere closer to earn a DVM.

A veterinary school creates an ecosystem around it. Students train in the state. Faculty veterinarians practice and conduct research there. Teaching hospitals provide clinical services to the public. Large animal veterinarians can work directly with farms and agricultural communities. And graduates who build professional and personal connections during four years of veterinary school may be more likely to establish careers nearby.

That is particularly significant at a time when many communities are struggling with access to veterinary care and some areas continue to have difficulty recruiting veterinarians.

For New Jersey, Shreiber offers the opportunity to grow more of its veterinary workforce at home rather than depending entirely on graduates educated elsewhere.

The school is also one of only five veterinary schools in the Northeast, giving its arrival significance beyond New Jersey.

This Isn't Just a Classroom

Rowan isn't building Shreiber simply as a place where students attend lectures.

Its veterinary teaching hospital provides primary, urgent and specialty veterinary services for dogs, cats and exotic animals, while field services extend the school's clinical reach to large animal patients.

That means the investment in the veterinary school can potentially serve two purposes at once: educating future veterinarians while expanding access to veterinary expertise for animal owners in the region.

The school also places Rowan in a highly unusual position in American higher education. According to the university, Rowan is one of only two public universities in the country granting DVM, DO and MD degrees, bringing veterinary and human medical education together within the same institution.

That combination could eventually create opportunities extending beyond clinical training, particularly in comparative medicine, biomedical research and One Health—the recognition that animal, human and environmental health are deeply interconnected.

Building It Is One Thing. Paying for It Is Another.

Launching a veterinary school is enormously expensive, and Rowan's leadership isn't pretending that state support alone can carry the institution indefinitely.

Houshmand thanked lawmakers for securing the latest $6 million during what he described as a challenging state budget process. He noted that funding for the veterinary school had initially been absent from the appropriation before legislators intervened.

“The fact that we went from zero appropriation this year for this great school to what we received, I am enormously grateful to all of you,” Houshmand said.

At the same time, he argued that universities can't depend exclusively on tuition, student fees and government appropriations to sustain ambitious programs.

“We need to find our own way of generating resources and revenues to supplement what we do in order to create this magnificent campus for our students,” he said.

For a veterinary school, a teaching hospital can become an important part of that equation. Clinical services provide training opportunities for students and residents while also generating revenue and creating a direct connection between the university and the animal-owning public.

Philanthropy will likely remain important as well. Shreiber's $30 million commitment demonstrates just how significant private donors can be in building a new veterinary institution, particularly when those gifts support scholarships that can help address another enormous problem facing future veterinarians: the cost of earning the degree.

Keeping Future Veterinarians Home

Perhaps the most compelling argument for the Shreiber School isn't found in the size of the building or even the millions of dollars being invested in it. It's found in the students who no longer have to leave New Jersey to become veterinarians.

For generations of aspiring veterinarians in the state, leaving wasn't a choice. There simply wasn't a veterinary school to attend.

Now there is.

And New Jersey isn't treating it like a small experiment. Between the state's original $75 million construction investment, Gerald B. Shreiber's $30 million commitment, and the latest $6 million appropriation, more than $100 million in public and private support has been committed to building and supporting the school.

That is a substantial bet on veterinary medicine—and on the idea that educating veterinarians closer to the communities that need them can ultimately strengthen the state's veterinary workforce.

The first veterinary school in New Jersey took a long time to arrive. State leaders now appear determined to make sure it stays.

Source: Rowan University. Quotes and funding information were provided in Rowan University's coverage of the legislative delegation's August 2026 visit to the Shreiber School of Veterinary Medicine.