Only Zoomin'

Only Zoomin’

Virtual events preserve sense of normalcy for veterinary college.

Story by Joe Montgomery

One of the most used – and most annoying – phrases of the last 12 months can be summed up in these three words: “Due to COVID-19.”

Those three words have changed everyday life in ways that have been frustrating and challenging. The College of Veterinary Medicine has not been immune to the effects of COVID-19. Lockdowns, reduced social gatherings, handwashing, mask-wearing and extra cleaning have been the new rules to live by.

Quick thinking helps save the day

When K-State students left for Spring Break in 2020, they did not return to campus until weeks later – and in some cases – months later. Kansas State University was left scrambling to determine how to proceed with some of its most essential functions and traditions, such as commencement exercises and events like the White Coat Ceremony.

Due to the resiliency of the faculty and staff in the College of Veterinary Medicine, ingenuity and determination prevailed so that students would not completely lose these ceremonies nor have to postpone them indefinitely.

Thanks to online platforms such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams, individuals in the college were still able to conduct classes and hold meetings.

Drs. James Roush and Peggy Schmidt, respectively the interim and outgoing associate deans for academic programs and student success, started holding meetings with the alumni and events team: Tony Ballard and Sarah Keatley; computing and technical support: Bryan Kraus, Praveen Ramanan, Manickam Dhandapani, Wayne Michaels, Kent Nelson and Scott Morrill; administrative assistants: Staci Murray and Miranda Schremmer; and marketing and communications team members: Audrey Hambright and Joe Montgomery.

Plans quickly developed for producing a combination of still images videos and online-conferencing options

in which to hold both the White Coat Ceremony and Commencement.

White Coat Ceremony

The first virtual event took place May 8 in place of the annual White Coat Ceremony. Since students were unable to be on campus due to limited operations status at Kansas State University, a meeting was held on Zoom so Dr. Elizabeth Davis, head of clinical sciences could formally welcome third-year students into the fourth year of studies, where the students begin clinical rotations. As part of the meeting, students recited the Pledge of Professionalism, but they would receive their white coats later, when they were able to return to the college.

You can see video from this virtual ceremony here: https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpX-2B4hj-k

“In our new COVID impacted world we’ve learned many things,” Dr. Davis says. “We have adapted. We have learned to be remote, online, muted, unmuted. We have recognized the importance of bandwidth capacity and we try to use chat when we can. I think what we all learned is, despite the challenging times, with adversity, brings opportunity. And the greatest opportunity that we have had through the past few months is to learn about resilience.”

Commencement

The college also used Zoom to celebrate its 2020 graduating class of Doctor of Veterinary Medicine students on May 15.

A celebratory video with a listing of all the students is posted at the 2020 Commencement Page. This video includes a greeting from Dean Bonnie Rush; keynote address from Dr. Dan Thomson, former faculty member; remarks from Dr. Alexandra Allen, the 2020 class president; faculty messages; and a video collage of students reciting the veterinarian’s oath.

“It is important for our newest graduates to be together to commit to the veterinary oath as a class,” says Dean Bonnie Rush. “We were fortunate to have Provost Taber join us on Zoom to confer the DVM degrees for the class of 2020. On a regular graduation weekend, Provost Taber would have been involved in maybe 12 hours a day for two days of graduation ceremonies, but for May 2020, we were his only graduation event.” The students recited the Veterinarian’s Oath online. “We could have watched a video of the reciting of the oath, but that’s not how oaths are taken,” Dean Rush says. “On Zoom, we realized the execution of the oath was going to be terrible. It’s messy and disorganized, but it does not matter. We commit ourselves to the purpose of being veterinarians, and we invited any veterinarians watching via livestream to stand and raise their hands and recommit to the oath along with these graduates. We had the graduates unmute their audio, share their video and go to ‘gallery view,’ so they could see each other.”

Kansas State Fair/Day in the Life videos

With more events cancelled or rescheduled to be held in virtual formats, a unique challenge involved the Kansas State Fair, where the college annually hosts the Birthing Center. When the final decision came to cancel the fair for 2020, the college was already in the process of producing a special series of “Day in the Life” videos that could be posted online and on social media platforms for the Kansas State Fair, such as through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

Four videos were produced, each focused on different sections at the Veterinary Health Center. One episode each was produced spotlighting Dr. Leslie Wagner and Dr. Shaun Huser in Livestock Services; Dr. Susan Nelson and Dr. Neala Boyer in the Pet Health Center; Dr. James Carpenter and Dr. David Eshar, exotic animal clinicians; and Dr. Chris Blevins, equine field service veterinarian. See the videos online: https://www.ksvhc.org/about/day-in-the-life.html.

Virtual tours

In addition to the veterinary students being remote for much of the year, visitors and prospective students have also been discouraged from coming to the campus for tours. To remedy this problem, Dr. Caroline Rost, associate dean for admissions worked with the video production team of Nelson and Morrill to develop a series of “virtual tour” videos.

“Creating a virtual tour with Kent Nelson and Scott Morrill was one project vital to our recruiting efforts, because it gives

virtual visitors a look inside the CVM, a chance to meet our dedicated faculty and staff, see student spaces and tour the Veterinary Health Center,” Dr. Rost says. “While many veterinary programs discontinued interviews for applicants due to the pandemic, the Admissions Committee and CVM did not see this as an option. Dee Roblyer [administrative assistant] was instrumental in organizing 418 candidate virtual interviews with 32 interview teams, tours and panels with the CVM Student Ambassadors and presentations for candidates by Dean Rush.”

Dr. Rost says the virtual interview plan took plenty of forethought and trust in technology to carry out one of the most important recruiting tools for the college. The admissions team has also held virtual applicant information sessions, given Zoom presentations to pre-veterinary clubs across the country and attended many virtual recruiting fairs while unable to travel. Group virtual visits are offered for school, 4-H groups, FFA classes and other larger groups.

Anyone can see the Virtual Tours page at the CVM website at: https://www.vet.k-state.edu/admissions/visit/virtual-tours/.

SAVMA Symposium

In 2021, the students have also used virtual means to conduct a special event. Kansas State University’s chapter of the Student American Veterinary Medical Association (SAVMA) served as hosts for the annual SAVMA Symposium. They were assisted by Ballard and Keatley in the Alumni and Events office to contract for a custom online platform.

“COVID-19 forced the cancellation of the 2020 symposium that was originally planned to be held at Cornell University,” said Savannah Isheim, a third-year veterinary student and co-chair of the planning committee. “We were fortunate to be able to bring back the symposium, albeit in a virtual format, and reinstate a traditional national meeting of veterinary students that dates back more than half a century.”

The online symposium featured more than 200 sessions and set a new attendance record of over 1,600 veterinary students. Keynote addresses were delivered by Drs. Nancy and Jerry Jaax (DVM classes of 1973 and 1972 respectively) and Drs. Ben and Erin Schroeder (DVM classes of 2002 and 2004, and who are featured in a story on Page 44). Students were tremendously committed to providing an exceptional experience for their peers.

“Our team worked very hard to make this run smoothly, and our efforts really paid off,” said Tyler Shima, also a thirdyear veterinary student and the other co-chair of the planning committee. “This was the first ever virtual symposium, and hopefully the last. I think our team was instrumental in getting the word out and promoting symposium this year, leading to an ‘unofficial’ symposium record attendance of more than 1,700 people.”

Information about the SAVMA Symposium is available online at: http://savmasymposium2021.com/.

Meeting donors online

The Kansas State University Foundation implemented a work plan that limited travel and in-person visits with donors. Austin Schilling senior development officer, shared that the CVM team engaged in 72 virtual donor visits – up 1,100% from the previous year. Telephone donor visits also increased by 39.5% during that time.

“Our big Zoom event for 2020 was the ‘Kind Hearts’ event consisting of four separate live one-hour Zooms that we called ‘Rush Hour’ (titled partly in reference to Dean Bonnie Rush),” Austin says. “Kind Hearts is traditionally held in the fall at the Hilton Garden Inn and we invite anyone who has contributed $10K or more to the CVM. Between the four different Zoom events, we had a total of 108 attendees. Dean Rush provided an update on the CVM and then four separate fourth-year CVM students were interviewed online.”

Schilling says the “icing on the cake” was at the conclusion of the Zoom call, where the college awarded $10,000 scholarships to each of those fourth-year students.

The KSU Foundation filmed what it calls, “ThankView” videos. One each was created for 10 “Unlimited Pet Tribute” clinics, to thank the donors for their involvement and investment with the CVM. You can see one of the videos posted for Dr. Sara Mark’s (’83) clinic, Southwest Veterinary Hospital in Denver at: https://ksuf.thankview.com/video/ preview/50c16170-a159-11eb-a3e2-95fe88e5af70.

Abby Ostronic, top center, is surprised with a $10,000 Charles W. Bower Scholarship during a Zoom "Kind Hearts" meeting.

Dr. Anum Ahmed, class of 2020, poses for an individual photo prior to virtual commencement. The graduates' photos were taken by McKenzie Smith Photography.

Other CE and Alumni Events held online

2020 Frank Jordan Seminar COVID 19 Pet Impact Lunch and Listen Annual Conference for Veterinarians Zoetis Teaching Awards Ceremony AVMA Virtual Alumni Reception Class of 1970 Virtual 50 th Class Reunion VetLIRN Scientific Forum Rabies Presentation with Dr. Ingrid Garrison AAEP Virtual Alumni Reception Hill’s @ Home Small Animal Nutrition Education Two VMAA Board Meetings

2021 Virtual Interviews for the Class of 2025 Spring VMAA Board Meeting Class of 1980 Virtual Reunion 2021 Frank Jordan Seminar2021 Annual Conference for Veterinarians AVMA Virtual Reception to be held July 30