EXCLUSIVE STORY
|
Hawaii pharmacy
college stirs student
unrest with new policy
The $28,000-a-year school lacks
accreditation and is requiring 100 of
its attendees to repeat their first year
When Pejman and Pooyan Mesdaghi were accepted for the inaugural class of the Hawaii College of Pharmacy last year, they thought they were on the road to becoming doctors of pharmacy, the first step toward lucrative careers in a helping profession.
Now the brothers from Utah find themselves at the center of a maelstrom involving the fledgling school in Kapolei.
H.A. Hasan, dean of the college, said the Mesdaghis and their classmate Ammata Vongsouvanh have led student protests that crossed the line from acceptable student demonstrations to rioting and were inciting more trouble.
The students say they are merely trying to get answers from administrators concerning the school's accreditation and a proposed new policy.
According to the policy, Hasan said, only 100 students from the school's class of 231 would be promoted to their second year. Another 100 students would be required to perform their first year's work over again, regardless of whether they passed their courses -- and pay another $28,000 in tuition for the first year. The rest of the students could take classes somewhere else for a year, then return as first-year students.
The Mesdaghis and Vongsouvanh say it is patently unfair for the school to make students who have passed their courses repeat their first year.
Hasan said students who don't like the college's policy do not have to stay there.
"That's their choice," said Hasan, a former Waipahu High School special education teacher who has a doctorate in education from the University of Washington. "If they choose not to (stay), that's their choice."
In a culmination of the tensions, administrators this week suspended the Mesdaghis and Vongsouvanh, ordering them to stay away from campus and refrain from talking to their classmates. Hasan also has obtained a temporary restraining order against the students. Hasan said the moves were necessary because the students had incited a riot at the school and were planning violence.
Pejman said he came to Hawaii not to be a campus revolutionary, but simply to work hard and earn a doctorate. His father, Pejman said, has spent $100,000 to send the brothers to the school, including $56,000 for one year's tuition for the brothers, plus living and travel expenses.
"We thought when we got into pharmacy school that we'd made it," said Pejman, 25, who was secretary of the student council. "We thought all we'd have to do was study hard. We didn't know we'd have to deal with all of this other stuff."
John Quinn, a former classmate who left the college in April because he did not believe he was getting a solid education there, said the Mesdaghis have done little more than ask tough questions.
"They're the most mild-mannered guys," Quinn said. "All they have is a voice."
"They're good students," said Tony Mai, the former student council president who also has left the college. "They're just the more active ones willing to do something."
Hasan disagreed with the assessments.
"These gentlemen have had a history of concerning us," he said.
In any case, Hasan said, the school is regrouping, having secured its largest faculty team ever -- including 26 full- and part-time faculty -- and hoping to be accredited next year. The school also has secured more than 150 sites where students can gain practical experience, he said.
"This is the strongest we've ever been," Hasan said.
The latest tensions cap off a turbulent academic year during which the college demonstrated scant progress in obtaining accreditation and one faculty member after another left the school.
From the beginning, the Hawaii College of Pharmacy faced challenges.
When it began classes, Hasan said, the school had only five full-time and four or five part-time faculty members for more than 230 students. The large class, Hasan said, was a function of the school not wanting to reject applicants, then having an extraordinarily high percentage of those accepted show up for class.
The large class size also meant a financial windfall for the college. With more than 230 students paying $28,000 each in tuition, the school raked in more than $6.4 million in tuition from its inaugural class.
The high teacher-to-student ratio was not the only thing that has bothered some students. The college also has yet to gain any accreditation status with the field's main accrediting organization for doctoral programs, the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education in Chicago.
Accreditation is more than academic. Unless they attend an accredited school, students cannot obtain traditional student loans and graduates cannot take exams required by states to obtain a pharmacy license.
Typically, schools apply for accreditation before they start accepting students, said Jeffrey Wadelin, who is in charge of accreditation programs for the council. This initial "pre-candidate" status requires schools to meet the council's basic standards. Institutions that do so receive site visits by ACPE evaluators before they earn the pre-candidate status, which is a usual first step toward full accreditation, Wadelin said.
The process, Wadelin said, is rigorous enough to weed out many people considering starting pharmacy schools.
But Hawaii College of Pharmacy began accepting students before it had gotten pre-candidate status. Under ACPE rules, that meant the college had to apply directly for candidate status, which carries even tougher requirements. As with schools seeking pre-candidate status, those seeking candidate status are subjected to a site visit by the ACPE after the council deems the school has an adequate plan in place.
The Mesdaghis and Vongsouvanh said administrators initially eased students' worries about the school's lack of accreditation by saying the school was on track. But, they said, they and other students became increasingly worried as the year progressed.
In January, the accreditation council posted a notice on its Web site that it had denied the college a site visit. More troubling to some students, the council did not ask the college to revise and resubmit its application, as the council had asked Texas A&M University-Kingsville School of Pharmacy to do. In contrast, the council "advised (the college) to withdraw its application" entirely.
"The majority if not all of the students were concerned" about the notice, said Mai, the former student council president.
Hasan said the school has been in contact with the accreditation council and is tailoring programs according to guidance from the group. In fact, Hasan said, the plan to hold students back and thereby reduce class size and the school's student-teacher ratio has been fashioned with guidance from the ACPE. Students held back will have to go for four years instead of three. They will have to pay tuition for only the first three years; the fourth year will be free, Hasan said.
"All I think about is getting candidate status," he said.
Wadelin confirmed that ACPE staff have met with Hasan and provided guidance. But he said the school still must draw up a program and submit it formally to the organization for review.
"Any inference that we approved a plan submitted by them is false," Wadelin said.
Accreditation was not the only issue troubling students over the course of the year. They also were concerned about instability among the faculty. In three instances, one professor started teaching a certain class, only to be replaced by another during the term, after the first professor left the school, Mai said.
Among the faculty who left during the year, Mai said, were Randell Miyahara, a professor and assistant dean; A.D. Borja-Barton, a professor and assistant dean; Forrest Batz, a professor who joined the faculty after school had started; John Pang, the associate dean; and N.V. Bhagavan, the school's original dean who also taught biochemistry.
Bhagavan, who is a professor of biochemistry at the University of Hawaii, said he left in March for health reasons and that the college was in good shape at the time.
Hasan declined to discuss the faculty departures.
Both sides agree that tensions began to escalate on May 25.
According to the Mesdaghis and Vongsouvanh, on that date, a school administrator, Scott Banks, called a meeting to announce the departure of Batz. Some students, concerned about the departure of a key faculty member, held a sit-in, demanding to talk to Hasan, the Mesdaghis and Vongsouvanh said.
Pejman Mesdaghi acknowledged that students became rowdy. But Pejman Mesdaghi said he was not to blame for the sit-in.
"It wasn't me, it was the whole class," he said.
Hasan, who said he had demonstrated for civil rights in the 1960s, said the sit-in was actually a riot which the school had to call police to stop.
Last weekend, the Mesdaghis and Vongsouvanh attended a meeting of students at the home of a classmate.
The Mesdaghis and Vongsouvanh say they and the other students were simply discussing ways to get straight answers from the college about accreditation and the school's plans for next year.
Hasan said the students discussed more riots and using violence. Hasan said he was not at the meeting but that some students reported what had taken place to the administration.
Pejman Mesdaghi said he never discussed inciting riots or using violence.
"None of it is true, I have so many witnesses," Pejman said of Hasan's allegations.
On Tuesday morning, Hasan, the college's founder, David Monroe, and a member of the college staff went to the Mesdaghis' home to deliver a letter suspending the students and prohibiting them from talking to classmates.
The Mesdaghis said they were not there. Vongsouvanh, who said he was there, said that Hasan noisily banged on doors and windows and yelled at those inside to "open the door."
Hasan said he felt the need to deliver the letter in person to prevent the students from disrupting campus.
The Mesdaghis don't buy that, saying the visit was meant to intimidate them.
"If you were afraid of me," Pooyan Mesdaghi said, "would you come bang on my window?"
A hearing is scheduled in state Circuit Court on July 25 to determine whether the court will grant an injunction against the students. The Hawaii Office of Consumer Protection has received complaints from students against the school and is "closely and carefully examining the allegations," said Steve Levins, the office's executive director.
In the meantime, Pejman Mesdaghi said, he continues to hope the school can get on track and that he can return. He denies trying to hurt the college.
"Two years until I'm a doctor," he said. "Why would I want the school to end?"
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