Kosch to step down as veterinary dean

Following a sabbatical leave, Kosch will serve as special assistant to Provost Jamshed Bharucha, working on university-wide projects. He will be based on the Boston campus, although, he said, “my academic home” will remain in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the veterinary school.

Philip C. Kosch

“Under his deanship, the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine has seen outstanding student achievement in competitive national programs, including leading the country in matches for clinical specialty training,” Bharucha said. “The creation of the Tufts Center for Conservation Medicine; continuous review and enhancement of our D.V.M. curriculum; new graduate degree programs in comparative biomedical sciences and laboratory animal medicine and the restructuring of academic departments to enhance programmatic synergies have helped to make our veterinary school a distinctive school with unique programs and strengths,” the provost said.

“Major new capital improvements, including the Agnes Varis Lecture Hall, the David McGrath Veterinary Teaching Laboratory, the Bernice Barbour Wildlife Medicine Building, the Luke & Lily Lerner Spay/Neuter Clinic and the expansion of the Foster Hospital for Small Animals enabled Dean Kosch to unify the veterinary school and to greatly enhance the learning and working environment on the Grafton campus,” Bharucha said.

“I’ve learned a great deal since coming to Tufts in 1996,” Kosch wrote in an e-mail announcement to the Tufts community. “The faculty and staff at this school aren’t just satisfied with developing a high quality program, whether it’s an educational, research or clinical service program. They are willing to work as hard as it takes to make it the leading program in the country.

“I’ve learned that a self-confident, self-determining, self-reliant and entrepreneurial group of people who think of what’s possible, not just of what’s expected, is a very powerful force,” he continued. “Accordingly, I came to fully appreciate the leadership culture of this very unique and special school.”

On May 5, the school was officially renamed the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine in recognition of a landmark gift from Cummings Foundation Inc., which has committed to investing $50 million in the veterinary school over the next 15 years.

When the gift was announced last fall, William S. Cummings, A58, president of the foundation, said, “The mission of Cummings Foundation is to invest in organizations that make contributions to our society. We were moved to recommend this commitment due to the practical, entrepreneurial spirit of Tufts University in general and Tufts veterinary school in particular. We are honored to support this world-class institution of higher learning.”

The gift, the largest in Tufts’ history, will help fund needed capital improvements, provide matching funds in support of major research proposals and strengthen the educational and clinical missions of the school.