In 2012, the University of Arizona and Midwestern University began looking into plans to start a veterinary school.
It became a race of which would be the first vet school in Arizona at a time when the state had a shortage of veterinarians, especially in rural counties.
Midwestern ended up winning the race, investing $90 million to establish the College of Veterinary Medicine on Midwestern's 144-acre Glendale campus. Its inaugural class of 102 students began in September 2014.
Even so, UArizona continued its quest, despite hitting an accreditation glitch in 2016, when the American Veterinary Medical Association's Council on Education voted to deny a finding of "reasonable assurance" for the Tucson university's proposed vet school.
