Rick's Blog

#bunyipsbooksbeyond

Use the menu below to explore "All Posts," or delve into selected topics like "Children's Picture Books", and more.

Corporate Influence and Educational Independence. Influence rarely arrives announcing itself. It does not usually enter universities wearing a name badge labeled: Corporate Control. More often, it arrives politely as Sponsorship. Partnership. Support. Opportunity. Collaboration. A funded residency. An endowed lecture. A sponsored continuing education program. A shared training initiative. A corporate-funded research project. A seat at the dean's leadership council. Individual

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, while the people most affected remain distant from the process itself. Decisions made within small circles, Justified through procedural legitimacy The language is always reassuring: Appropriate consultation occurred. Representative bodies were informed. Process

Why Academic Veterinary Medicine Is Struggling to Reproduce Itself. Every profession depends upon people willing to preserve its intellectual foundations. Not just practice it. Advance it. Teach it. Question it. Challenge it. Pass it forward. In veterinary medicine, those people have traditionally emerged from academia. The clinician-scientists. The teacher-scholars. The faculty mentors. The specialists who stayed behind after residency not because academia made them wealthy,

When Productivity Becomes the Curriculum Every residency program teaches more than medicine. Even when no one says it aloud. Residents learn: What the institution values. What gets rewarded. What gets protected. What gets sacrificed when time becomes scarce. And increasingly, across both academia and private specialty practice, one message risks becoming dominant: Productivity comes first. Not because people are malicious, or because faculty no longer care about teaching, or

“We Followed the Process…” There are certain books you never completely leave behind. For many people, 1984 by George Orwell is one of them. You may read it at seventeen and think it is about dictatorships and surveillance cameras. You read it again at forty and realize it is about language. You read it at seventy and understand it is really about fear. Not the fear of prison cells. The fear of speaking honestly. In the 1950s, the Stasi perfected that fear into a system of go

Why Many Young Specialists Choose Private Practice If this discussion is to be honest, then one thing must be acknowledged clearly from the outset: Many young veterinarians are not leaving academia because they lack commitment to scholarship, teaching, or the profession. They are leaving because the system itself has changed. And in many cases, their reasons are entirely understandable. Any serious conversation about residency training, corporate partnerships, and the future

The Original Academic Mission of Veterinary Specialization There was a time when residency training in veterinary medicine meant something more than specialization. Much more. A residency was not simply a pathway toward advanced clinical skills or a higher future income. A residency was an intellectual apprenticeship. A period of transformation. A stage in which a young veterinarian entered not only a specialty, but a culture. The culture of academic medicine. That culture wa

How Corporate Residency Partnerships Are Reshaping Veterinary Academia Something profound is changing in veterinary medicine, and most of it is happening quietly. Not in lecture halls. Not in graduation ceremonies. Not in mission statements framed on the walls of veterinary schools. It is happening in residency programs. For decades, veterinary residency training occupied a unique place within the profession. Residencies were not simply advanced apprenticeships. Residencies w

Australians have a remarkable way of saying no without ever quite sounding impolite. And perhaps no phrase captures the national psyche better than: Yeah… nah. On the surface, it sounds contradictory. Linguistically confused. Almost comical. But every Australian knows exactly what it means. It means: I heard you. I considered it. I understand where you are coming from. But the answer is still no. The most important phrase in the Australian language. Means no, but delivered wi

There was a time when a young veterinarian from Sydney looked across the Pacific Ocean and saw not merely a continent, but an ideal. He saw North American veterinary medicine. And it was extraordinary. Not perfect. Nothing ever is. But to a young Australian veterinary student in the early 1970s, it represented something larger than itself. North American veterinary medicine represented: Excellence, Aspiration, Integrity, Scholarship, and Leadership. A profession that believed

Veterinary residency training was once viewed primarily as the final apprenticeship before an academic career. Teaching hospitals trained specialists not simply to become clinicians, but to become clinician-scientists, teachers, mentors, and future faculty members. Residency programs were deeply tied to scholarship, discovery, and the intellectual mission of the university. As one academic review noted, veterinary teaching hospitals were historically expected to help nurture

Who Are Universities Really Serving Now? At the heart of every public university lies a fundamental question: Who does this institution exist to serve? The answer once seemed relatively straightforward. Universities existed to serve society. They educated citizens, Generated knowledge, Preserved culture, Advanced science, Challenged orthodoxy, Protected intellectual freedom, and Prepared future generations for participation in civic and democratic life. Universities were cons

Walk through the corridors of many American colleges of veterinary medicine today and you will hear accents from around the world. Veterinary medicine in the United States has become profoundly internationalized. This is not inherently surprising. Science has always crossed borders. Universities have traditionally sought the best minds regardless of geography. Many internationally trained veterinarians are extraordinary clinicians, researchers, teachers, and mentors who enric

Japan’s Quiet Epidemic of Empty Houses. In the foothills beneath Mount Fuji, where cherry blossoms drift across narrow roads and ancient temples sit quietly among cedar trees, there are houses slowly disappearing into silence. Their gardens are overgrown. Mailboxes rust. Curtains hang motionless behind dusty windows. Roof tiles sag under years of neglect. These abandoned homes, known in Japan as akiya - are becoming one of the most striking symbols of modern Japan. And the sc

What Veterinary Medicine Reveals About the Future of Universities. Long before many universities began openly speaking the language of corporate management, veterinary medicine had already started living it. The transformation did not happen all at once. At first, corporatization in veterinary medicine seemed relatively benign - even beneficial. Larger organizations promised efficiencies, better equipment, improved infrastructure, expanded specialty services, stronger purchas

There is something quietly misleading about the way we speak of professions. We talk about training, as though it is a finite process. We talk about qualification, as though it marks an arrival. We talk about being ready, as though readiness is a destination. And yet, if this series has suggested anything, it is this: Veterinary medicine is not something one finishes learning.It is something one enters. Looking Back Across these essays, we have walked a path that will feel fa

Every profession reaches a moment when reflection becomes necessary. Not because it is failing. But because it is evolving. Veterinary medicine now finds itself at such a moment. Across this series, we have explored: The illusion of readiness, The tension between knowledge and judgment, The centrality of communication, The realities of cost and constraint, The emotional weight of practice, The uncertainty of the first year, The quiet importance of mentorship, The structure an

The Rise of the Managerial University. There was a time when American universities spoke a very different language. They spoke of: Scholarship. Intellectual curiosity. Mentorship. Citizenship. Public service. Ideas worth pursuing simply because they expanded human understanding. Universities were never meant to function merely as credentialing factories or economic engines. Their purpose was larger than that. They were intended to be places where society invested in knowledge

There is a Japanese concept known as Oubaitori, written with four kanji characters representing four different flowering trees: Cherry blossom, Plum blossom, Peach blossom, and Apricot blossom. Kanji are the adopted Chinese characters used in the Japanese writing system. Each character carries both sound and meaning, often conveying an idea or image rather than simply a phonetic sound. In Oubaitori, the four kanji symbolize distinct blossoms, each with its own unique beauty a

A New Reality for Graduates There was a time when the image of veterinary practice was relatively simple. A clinic. A small team. A veterinarian who knew the clients and their animals, over years, sometimes generations. Decisions were made close to the patient. Relationships were personal. The pace, while often demanding, was locally defined. That world has not disappeared. But it now sits alongside another larger, more complex, and increasingly influential reality. The corpo