Ever since assuming his position on Oct. 1, 2015 as the new Dean of the Ontario Veterinary College (OVC), Dr. Jeff Wichtel has been busy learning about the workings of the institution.
“It’s been a bit of a blur,” said Wichtel. “I’ve just been like a sponge, trying to soak up as much information as I can, and meet as many people as I can. It’s a big operation over here at the OVC, because not only do we have the normal academic departments, but we also have a teaching hospital—the Animal Health Lab—so I can’t say that I’ve met everyone yet, but I’m doing my best…I’m just trying to find out what everybody’s life is like each day at the college, and learn a little bit about their issues.”
Wichtel explained that he still spends most of his time as dean meeting people both within the OVC and those affiliated with the OVC through various industries.
“Well, I can’t hide the fact that most of my day is full of meetings, especially right now, when a lot of people are interested in meeting me, and I’m interested in meeting them,” said Wichtel. “I would say that one of the bigger surprises, although people did warn me about this, was that probably 40 to 50 per cent of my work is related to development and fundraising and working with partners—industry partners, private partners—that help us in many ways, financially or otherwise.”
Wichtel is also interested in meeting and teaching students in the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) program.
“When I interviewed for this job, I said I’d like to still be able to teach, and people kind of laughed at me and said, ‘You’ll be too busy,’ and certainly these first few months have been busy, but I do hope next semester to be able to teach, and I want to be able to teach something in the DVM curriculum, because I want the students to be able to get to know me,” said Wichtel. “I don’t want to be a dean that’s up in his office, and they never see the dean, and maybe they feel intimidated to talk to me about issues that they have.”
Having done quite a bit of research in the field of veterinary medicine, Wichtel would likely have a fair bit of knowledge to impart upon students.
“My research has mostly been at the interface between nutrition and disease, or nutrition and production…I ended up working in parts of the world where there were common trace element deficiencies in the feed that’s fed to farm animals and horses,” explained Wichtel. “And actually, this part of Ontario is no exception… So humans tend not to be selenium-deficient, but animals don’t have that luxury: they have to eat whatever’s growing in front of them, or the hay that’s harvested on the local farms…So most of my research has been in the diagnosis of trace element deficiencies, and how [to] correct them.” Another priority for Wichtel is the renovation of certain campus veterinary facilities. According to Wichtel, “One of the most important [priorities] is upgrading the facilities for surgeries and anaesthesia…Right now, [the veterinary hospital] is an older building, it’s a 1950s-style building—and it just doesn’t meet the specifications for a modern veterinary hospital in some ways…There are many areas in the back where we do all the work that still need work…So we have a master plan for the college, which includes $23 million worth of improvements, and we’re trying to do it one bite at a time for surgeries and anaesthesia, and develop a suite for what we call minimally-invasive surgery…We have a very active fundraising campaign going on at the moment. Our target is to raise $9 million, and we’re probably 60 per cent there right now.”
Though Wichtel is still settling into Guelph, he concluded that he’s been extremely pleased by his welcome so far.
“People told me that when I came to the University of Guelph, I would love it, mainly because the welcoming sense of the community, the strong sense of the community, the loyalty of many of the students and alumni,” said Wichtel. “I find that the students are fantastic, they’re very down-to-earth, very curious and welcoming, and so are the faculty and staff. The alumni are great, when the professors retire, they never seem to want to go…So everything that people have told me about it has proven to be true.”