In February 2025, part of the Veterinary Medical Sciences building will be torn down to build a new component of the veterinary school. 

One classroom of the soon-to-be-demolished building is VMS 201. This room may be a lecture hall for some people, but it’s more than that for Christopher Lee, Class of 1993. 

Lee is an instructional associate professor in the Texas A&M biology department. Before he became a professor, Lee was a biomedical sciences student attending class in VMS 201.

“I took undergraduate classes there in the spring of 1992 and the fall of 1993,” Lee said. “I also took a graduate course or two there when I was working on a master’s degree in the fall of 1994 and the spring of 1995.”  

Lee wasn’t the only member of his family to learn in VMS 201. 

“My dad took vet school classes in VMS 201 in 1968, 1969 and 1970 when he graduated from vet school with a Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine in 1970,” Lee said.

Lee has a family legacy at A&M, and his sons are both currently enrolled.

“My grandfather was a member of the Aggie Class of 1941, and my wife is Class of 1993,” Lee said. “Colonel Robert J. McMurry is my cousin, and he is in the Aggie Class of 1994. Both of my sons are on campus now taking classes.”

Lee explained that his time at A&M as a student was much different than his experience in the same classroom as a professor. 

“I think it is a very interesting change of perspective as one goes from being a student taking classes in a room to being behind the lectern teaching a class of 200 or more looking at you as you speak,” Lee said. “The vibe and feel of the situation is very different for me now than how I felt in 1995.” 

Lee’s feelings toward VMS 201 have changed over the years, but there is something in the classroom that has remained constant over the years.

“I am 95% certain that two paintings that are currently in VMS 201 were in VMS 201 when I was an undergraduate and masters student,” Lee said.

Lee has introduced his connection and love for the artwork in VMS 201 to his students who share the space with him during the week. 

“When I heard Dr. Lee mention that [part] of the VMS building is going to be destroyed, and he basically has a historical past with VMS 201, I was devastated to know that a room that means so much to him is being destroyed,” kinesiology sophomore Melanie Wills said.

Lee said he hopes that the paintings will find a new home.

“I intend to ask the powers that be in the vet school that if those two paintings need a home, I am happy to put them in my Heldenfels office or in our home in south College Station,” Lee said.

Seeing those familiar paintings — and the many other vet school details that have remained more or less unchanged over the last 50 years — brought Lee back through the decades to some of the key moments he experienced in VMS 201, including Lee’s freshman biomedical sciences orientation just a few days before the 1989 fall semester began. 

“My dad went with me to the BIMS orientation prior to the onset of the fall of 1989 semester, and he said something to the effect that he had not been in the vet school in 20 years,” Lee said. “In the fall of 1989, we had a BIMS seminar once a week in VMS 201. So I think that in late August of this year — as I stepped back into VMS 201 — I think some of those fall 1989 memories came back to me.”

Lee has been on campus since he was 18 years old, but he didn’t begin teaching in VMS 201 or the veterinary school until this semester. He said he’s seen many buildings come and go during his time at A&M. VMS 201 might look different starting in February 2025, but the connection Lee has with the space will not change. 

“First a building goes down, and then, a new building is erected upon that soil,” Lee said. “I have probably seen that 15-20 times in my time here in Aggieland, but VMS is a little different given I had not been in that building in almost 30 years, and being back there brought back some memories.”