Rowan University opens Shreiber School of Veterinary Medicine

The new Shreiber School of Veterinary Medicine (SSVM) celebrated its opening with a formal ribbon cutting ceremony on October 3, 2026, at Rowan University’s West Campus in Harrison Township, New Jersey. Guests were then invited to tour the new academic facility and teaching hospital.¹

Ali Houshmand, PhD, president of Rowan University as well as a pet owner, told a crowd of university leaders, state and local legislators, faculty, staff, students and other guests, that creating the veterinary school was something that was needed in New Jersey. “The horse industry alone in New Jersey is a billion dollar business, not to mention food animals and pet animals. And everybody loves a pet,” Houshmand said.

The school is the first in the Garden State to offer a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) degree program. The veterinary school’s opening also makes Rowan only the second public university in the US to offer DVM, Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine, and Doctor of Medicine degrees. The university’s overall growth and successes in recent years were recognized by speakers with animal health care noted as a significant addition to the state and region.

Planning for the veterinary school began in February 2020 and built momentum despite the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Tony Lowman, chancellor at Rowan University.¹ The university ceremoniously broke ground on the veterinary school in the spring of 2023.² Rowan then celebrated 50% completion of the building with a beam signing event in the fall of 2024.³

The inaugural class of 75 SSVM students began their Rowan veterinary education in September 2025. More than half of the first class call New Jersey ‘home’ with the remaining students hailing from 15 other states including Georgia, Massachusetts, Texas, Wisconsin and Washington. Rowan plans to eventually enroll annual classes with 90 students.

Houshmand told the audience that Rowan serves the country and “cares very much” what they do to advance the interests of New Jersey and the nation. “We want to keep it affordable. We want to keep it safe for every single one of your children, irrespective of their politics, their religion, their belief, whatever it is. We want them to come in here and feel welcome and feel loved and get a great education and go and be a great citizen. That's the mission of every university in this country,” Houshmand said.

The campus offers a 70,000 sq ft academic facility with classrooms and teaching laboratories, and a 47,000 sq ft teaching hospital that will open October 6, 2025. The hospital will offer primary and specialty care as well as emergency medicine, and features a diagnostics laboratory and an on-site pharmacy.

During tours of the facilities, guides took visitors through many of these spaces as well as comfortable seating areas for students to study, eat lunch, and store belongings. A student guide pointed out innovative details such as charging towers placed throughout a large classroom that allow students to increase the battery lives on their electronic devices from wherever they sit, and a clinical classroom with models of large animals that allow learners to practice hands-on techniques before handling live patients. In the hospital, a staff veterinary technician showed exam rooms, an anesthesia administration area, a dentistry suite, and first floor surgical spaces that are equipped with observation windows, allowing students to view procedures from second floor observation benches.

Matthew Edson, DVM, MBA, CVPM, MRCVS, founding dean of the SSVM, noted in his speech that many supporters and donors came together to create the veterinary school. He thanked them as a whole, while recognizing individually the school’s namesake family, who donated $30 million to the project in 2023.⁴ “Gerry and Melanie [Shreiber] are a part of this. They come and they visit. They want to hang out with our students. They want to see the impact that they're having,” Edson said.

The dean also thanked members of the SSVM’s first class, and asked those in attendance to stand and be recognized. “We have representation from all across the United States and have international applicants applying to our program…All these students are brave members of this beta test [for] the first vet school in the state. I hope we're doing okay so far, but it really was a great moment for all of us that are a part of this to see them arrive a couple weeks ago. So ‘thank you’ for being here,” Edson said.

Upon graduation of this first class, SSVM will be eligible for accreditation from the American Veterinary Medical Association Council on Education (AVMA COE). Most recently in the multi-step process for accreditation, Rowan obtained a Letter of Reasonable Assurance in 2024.¹ In the US, there are 30 veterinary colleges currently accredited by the AVMA COE with 4 more schools holding provisionary accreditation.⁵

In his ceremonial speech, New Jersey State Assemblyman Louis Greewald noted the impact the veterinary school will have on the region, which includes increasing jobs and boosting the local economy. “This day means much more than just this class and this building…This becomes decades and generations of return on investment. This incoming class of 75 students [and subsequent classes]—more than 50% New Jersey born and raised—will not only make a difference in our immediate regional economy, but they will lead efforts around clinical trials and differences that will not only improve the culture of our animal stock and what most of us know as traditional veterinary impact, but it will lead to the overall better health of our human society,” Greenwald said.

The SSVM has already been working to improve access to care throughout the rural South Jersey region. Since the all of 2024, it has operated a mobile unit that provides shelter medicine and community outreach services.⁶ Edson said veterinarians have been performing spay and neuter procedures, and a large animal unit that cares for patients in the field with trucks outfitted to serve these medical needs.¹

References

1. Shreiber School ribbon cutting. Presented at: Rowan University Shreiber School of Veterinary Medicine; October 3, 2025. Harrison Township, NJ.
2. Coppock K. The new Shreiber School of Veterinary Medicine breaks ground. dvm360. April 28, 2023. Accessed October 3, 2025. https://www.dvm360.com/view/the-new-shreiber-school-of-veterinary-medicine-breaks-ground
3. Littrell A. Rowan University’s Shreiber School of Veterinary Medicine celebrates 50% completion. dvm360. September 11, 2024. Accessed October 3, 2025. https://www.dvm360.com/view/rowan-universitys-shreiber-school-of-veterinary-medicine-celebrates-50-percent-completion
4. Rowan University receives $30 million donation for New Jersey’s first veterinary school. dvm360. April 28, 2023. Accessed October 3, 2025. https://www.dvm360.com/view/rowan-university-receives-30-million-donation-for-new-jersey-s-first-veterinary-school
5. Accredited veterinary colleges. American Veterinary Medical Association. Accessed October 3, 2025.
6. White K, Crossley KC. Rowan University takes veterinary services on the road. dvm360. November 18, 2024. Accessed October 3, 2025. https://www.dvm360.com/view/rowan-university-takes-veterinary-services-on-the-road