I am wholly in support of this change. It would not result in faculty allowing students to perform procedures that are too advanced for them, as has been suggested. That would never happen, since the faculty are veterinarians first, and are responsible for the health and care of their patients above all else. This is a requirement of our licensure, but more importantly it is what we dedicate our lives to doing. What may not be clear to those outside of the training process is that there are very simple “procedures” like learning how to perform a thorough physical examination that early year students are not allowed to do in the clinic. Physical examination is non-invasive, training in the first year covers this perfectly adequately, and this is not in place of the faculty member performing the exam, it is in addition to the faculty member performing the exam. Students need a lot of experience with this in order to differentiate what is normal and what is not normal. There are procedures a step above that, like giving a subcutaneous injection or drawing blood that they also need to perform over and over again, to be most proficient. These types of procedures do not require 3 years of veterinary training to be completely safe for the students to perform. Nothing would happen without oversight. Moreover, the law in Virginia is more restrictive than other states where I have worked (NY, WI, IL), and I feel very confident that the patients in those states received excellent care at the teaching hospitals. This is not a new idea, it is working beautifully elsewhere, please let’s do it in Virginia.