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I’ll believe it when I see it.
That’s what I said when Lyon College first announced plans three years ago to open Arkansas’ first dental and veterinary schools.
I’m sure I said it several times in the years since, but as you can see on today’s front page, it’s time to believe.
In just a few months, the Lyon College School of Dental Medicine will welcome its first students to “campus” in Little Rock’s Riverdale neighborhood. Next year, Lyon hopes to do the same in Cabot at its School of Veterinary Medicine.
They haven’t crossed the finish line yet, but success appears imminent. That’s worth celebrating.
When these schools open, Lyon will have managed to do something that people around the state have been wishing for and talking about for as long as I can remember — thus my believe-it-when-I-see-it attitude.
Our state’s poor collective oral health and lack of a dental school have been obvious, and the shortage of veterinarians has been growing and evident for years to anyone who is paying attention, especially when it comes to large-animal vets in rural Arkansas. Until now, no one has had the drive or the courage to actually do what needs to be done. That is until a little private college from Batesville stepped in.
Arkansas State University deserves great praise too. It also has plans to open its College of Veterinary Medicine in Jonesboro in the fall of 2026. The race to open Arkansas’ first vet school appears headed for a tie. Perhaps that’s as it should be.
ASU-Beebe has also been filling a critical need with its vet tech program, training the next generation of veterinarian assistants.
Lyon College President Melissa Taverner deserves special recognition. She became the liberal arts college’s 19th president just two months before plans were announced for the dental and vet schools. She has driven progress ever since even in the face of major roadblocks, like the deterioration of a real estate deal that would have located both schools on the Heifer International campus in Little Rock’s East Village. What an executive accomplishment.
Lyon saw the need and took action. It’s the perfect example of the community’s needs aligning with the needs and goals of a private organization — Arkansas with its shortage of dentists and veterinarians and Lyon with its ambition of expanding graduate offerings.
The higher education landscape is ever-changing, and with an enrollment cliff looming, colleges like Lyon must continue finding ways to evolve.
In these two coming schools, Lyon will fulfil its goals and add some revenue; Arkansas will finally have an in-state pipeline for future dentists and vets.
How could you not celebrate this? Even a cynical journalist is impressed.
You couldn’t have scripted it any better, and even though I can see it now, I can hardly believe it.
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