The University of Hawaii administration is committed to rebuilding and accrediting the School of Public Health, which was dismantled when Kenneth Mortimer was president. Rebuilt public health school
backed by top officials at UHThe school was closed in 1999
because of problems with fundingBy Helen Altonn
haltonn@starbulletin.comThis was news delivered by UH Interim Chancellor Deane Neubauer and Dr. Edwin Cadman, dean of the John A. Burns Medical School, who were on a panel at a Global Public Health conference Wednesday at the Hawai'i Convention Center.
The comments put happy expressions on the faces of people in the audience, which included graduates, faculty members and health officials who had protested the school's closing.
Mortimer closed the School of Public Health in 1999 because of budget cuts and folded it into the UH School of Medicine.
Neubauer described state and university funding problems contributing to the action but said: "I did not see the necessity for the school to suffer the fate it did institutionally.
"It is unconscionable for the University of Hawaii not to have a School of Public Health," he said, adding that President Evan Dobelle's administration is pledged to restore it.
Cadman said he has set a goal to re-create and reaccredit the school in five years -- a process already under way. He learned Monday that the epidemiology and gerontology programs have been accredited and can provide master's degrees, he said.
He said he believes the biostatistics and environmental health programs can be reaccredited in 12 to 18 months. That leaves health care policy, and a researcher from Johns Hopkins University is expected to join the faculty to work in that area, he said.
"I believe we will have all the programs accredited or the school accredited in five years," he said.
Whether it will be a separate school or part of the medical school will be up to the faculty, Cadman said.
"If they choose to leave, it will be with my blessing."
However, in its infancy the school will need support from a bigger institution, he said.
Funding still will be a problem, Neubauer and Cadman said.
The reason UH is so low in U.S. News & World Report rankings is because of low endowments and alumni support, Neubauer said. Active givers at UH total 9 percent compared with a national average of 18.5 percent, he said. The UH endowment of about $100 million is "a pittance," he said.
Cadman said the medical school "is searching for all sorts of money in different venues," including grants, contracts and philanthropic donations.
"We can't go back to the state to support a School of Public Health or the medical school.
"We're adopting a business model," he said. "We want the faculty to earn money. This creates excellence in teaching and research."
University of Hawaii
