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We were sitting outside La Maison, having dinner in the little square in the 17th arrondissement of Paris. It was one of those wonderfully ordinary Paris evenings. Tables spilled onto the pavement. People talked over one another. Glasses clinked. Waiters threaded their way between chairs carrying plates and bottles of wine. Dogs lay under tables. People came and went. The square had that particular Parisian quality of being busy without seeming hurried. And directly across fr

We spend a great deal of time trying to understand dogs. Perhaps we should spend a little more time appreciating how extraordinarily dogs have become at understanding us. Blog At A Glance Point Key Idea Take-Home Message 1. Domestication changed the dog brain Over roughly 15,000 years, humans selected dogs not only for physical traits and useful behaviors, but indirectly for neural systems that helped them live successfully with us. We did not simply change what dogs look l

Universities are filled with intelligent people. That is what makes one of their most persistent problems so interesting. How can institutions populated by scholars trained to question assumptions, challenge evidence, expose weak arguments, and demand intellectual rigor sometimes make enormous decisions with remarkably little visible dissent? Quick Read: Five-Point Blog Summary Point Key Idea Take-Home Message 1. Silence is not the same as agreement Universities can make majo

In a previous blog, AI Detection, Authorship and Academic Integrity: The Strange New Science of Detecting AI, I considered an increasingly uncomfortable problem. (https://www.ricklecouteur.com/post/ai-detection-authorship-and-academic-integrity-the-strange-new-science-of-detecting-ai-685) Universities want to know whether students are using artificial intelligence to produce academic work. So, they have turned to artificial intelligence to detect artificial intelligence. The

Accreditation matters. It matters enormously. When a student graduates with a veterinary degree, the public has every right to assume that the graduate has received an education that meets rigorous professional standards. Employers need that assurance. Licensing authorities need it. Students investing years of their lives and hundreds of thousands of dollars need it. And, most importantly, our patients need it. Few would seriously argue that veterinary schools should simply b

The $327 Million Question Facing the UC Davis Veterinary Medical Complex This is the third essay in this three part series: Bigger, Better & Already Outdated? What If the Future of Veterinary Medicine Isn't a Building? (https://www.ricklecouteur.com/post/bigger-better-already-outdated-what-if-the-future-of-veterinary-medicine-isn-t-a-building) The Modern University: Who Decided to Build the Future? Consultation, stakeholders and the decision before the decision. (https://www.

This essay follows the earlier blog titled Bigger, Better & Already Outdated? What If the Future of Veterinary Medicine Isn't a Building? (https://www.ricklecouteur.com/post/bigger-better-already-outdated-what-if-the-future-of-veterinary-medicine-isn-t-a-building) UC Davis is building an extraordinary new veterinary medical complex. Its planned Small Animal Hospital alone is projected to cost $327 million. It will expand clinical capacity, incorporate sophisticated technology

Is the New Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital being built for yesterday's veterinary medicine? UC Davis is planning an extraordinary new veterinary hospital. The proposed Small Animal Hospital will be large, technologically sophisticated and expensive. Current university plans put the project cost at $327 million, with completion anticipated in 2029. It is intended to increase annual patient capacity dramatically while expanding specialty medicine, emergency and critical ca

Every so often, an issue arises that reminds us of a simple but profound truth: Possessing legal authority does not eliminate the need to listen. Consider energy. Canada supplies a substantial proportion of the crude oil refined in America's Midwest. Pipelines, refineries, governments, manufacturers, transport companies, farmers, and millions of consumers form an interconnected system. No single participant operates in isolation. Canada may own the resource. American companie

Last week, I attended the annual Prize Night at the University of Sydney School of Veterinary Medicine. It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening. I was invited to the event as a donor, having contributed a scholarship in 2016 (The LeCouteur Family Scholarship - https://www.sydney.edu.au/scholarships/d/lecouteur-family-scholarship.html). Scholarships and prizes were presented to students who had distinguished themselves through academic achievement, leadership and service. Of the

Power Without Listening. Shared Governance Is Humility. One of Australia's greatest artists - Arthur Boyd - spent years painting a mad king. Arthur Boyd returned again and again to the biblical story of Nebuchadnezzar - not to illustrate ancient history, but to explore something timeless. Arthur Boyd’s Nebuchadnezzar is not merely a Babylonian ruler driven into the wilderness. He is: Everyman. Powerful yet vulnerable, accomplished yet isolated, blinded by his own success unti

The greatest tyrannies are often not enforced by force, but by silence. In January 1776, a recent English immigrant named Thomas Paine published a 47-page pamphlet that changed history. It was called Common Sense. Its message was remarkably simple. Ordinary people should question authority. Power should justify itself. Institutions exist to serve the people - not the other way around. Paine did not write for scholars. He wrote for citizens. He translated complicated political

Character, Compassion, and Professional Identity Part 11 brings the series of The Future of Education full circle. Part 1 began by asking whether examinations measure what truly matters. Ten essays later, we arrive at perhaps the most important question of all: What if the most important qualities in a veterinarian are the very qualities that resist measurement? Veterinary education has become remarkably sophisticated. We can measure knowledge. We can assess competencies. We

Research results illustrate how individuals and organizations can become dominated by threat detection instead of curiosity. Every institution has a governing philosophy. Some are built to make profits. Some are built to preserve traditions. Universities were built to pursue truth. That distinction matters. For centuries, universities operated on a simple premise: Knowledge advances through questioning. Faculty challenged one another. Students challenged faculty. Administrato

Silence Is Not Consensus Universities often celebrate academic freedom. Academic freedom appears in mission statements, strategic plans, accreditation documents, commencement speeches, and faculty handbooks. Academic freedom is invoked when institutions wish to demonstrate their commitment to free inquiry and intellectual diversity. Yet academic freedom is frequently misunderstood. Many assume academic freedom is simply the right of a professor to say controversial things wit

Well-Being, Burnout, and the Future of the Profession Part 10 is a natural successor to Part 9. If corporate practice, educational debt, workforce shortages, and changing expectations are reshaping the profession, then we must confront one of the most important questions facing veterinary medicine today: Are we educating veterinarians, or are we educating human beings who happen to become veterinarians? The distinction matters. For much of veterinary history, resilience was a

Who Is Shaping Veterinary Education? Part 9 takes the series into potentially sensitive territory. The goal is not to criticize corporate veterinary medicine. Rather, the question is how the rapid growth of corporate practice is influencing: What veterinary schools teach, How graduates are trained, and What skills are increasingly valued. When I graduated, most veterinarians entered independently owned practices. The profession was dominated by small businesses. Practice owne

Why Elizabeth Warren Is Challenging Private Equity in Veterinary Medicine Veterinary medicine has become an unlikely political battleground. For decades, veterinary practice was largely insulated from the forces that transformed human healthcare. Most clinics were locally owned. Veterinarians built practices over a lifetime, earned the trust of generations of families, and eventually sold those practices to younger colleagues who continued the tradition. That world is disappe

How Power Drifted Away from the Faculty The parallels are becoming difficult to ignore. In universities. In corporations. In politics. In philanthropy. Different institutions. Different stakes. Different language. Yet increasingly, the same pattern appears: Decisions made within small circles, justified through procedural legitimacy, while the people most affected remain distant from the process itself. The language is always reassuring: Appropriate consultation occurred. R

The Most Important Subject We Rarely Teach Well Ask veterinarians what subjects occupied most of their time in veterinary school. They will mention anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, pathology, medicine, surgery, radiology, neurology, and dozens of others. Then ask them what occupies most of their time in practice. The answer may surprise veterinary students. Communication. Not surgery. Not pharmacology. Not diagnostic imaging. Communication. Every day. All day. Yet communica