Pharmacy school hasn’t
applied for regional
accreditation

The process is one of the steps
needed for the Hawaii college to receive
approval from the national council

The Hawaii College of Pharmacy, a fledgling school embroiled in controversy surrounding its accreditation status, has not applied for accreditation with a key accrediting entity, indicating that the college faces additional hurdles before students can be assured they will be able to practice as pharmacists after they graduate.

A spokeswoman for the Western Association of Schools and Colleges said yesterday that the Hawaii College of Pharmacy has not applied for accreditation with the entity, which is one of six regional associations that accredit public and private schools, colleges, and universities in the United States.

An application to the Western Association of Schools and Colleges is important because the pharmacy college must be able to demonstrate that it is progressing toward accreditation with the association before it can earn accreditation with the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education, said Jeffrey Wadelin, who is in charge of accreditation for the ACPE, which is the main sanctioning body for doctoral pharmacy programs.

"In order to be eligible to come forward, they have to show evidence that they are regionally accredited or are in the process of becoming regionally accredited," Wadelin said of the Hawaii College of Pharmacy.

The state of Hawaii and other states require schools to be accredited by the ACPE before graduates can be licensed to practice as pharmacists.

The Hawaii College of Pharmacy in Kapolei is not affiliated with the University of Hawaii, which is planning a four-year doctoral pharmacy program to be located on the Big Island. That school is to be called the College of Pharmacy at the University of Hawaii at Hilo.

The college in Kapolei, which last year launched a three-year doctoral program, has been trying for much of the past year to gain accreditation from the ACPE, which is based in Chicago.

In January, the ACPE asked the Hawaii College of Pharmacy to withdraw its application for accreditation with the agency. Such a request, Wadelin said, "indicates that there are substantial issues" with a school's application, Wadelin said.

Since then the college has attempted to regroup, enhancing faculty and finding new places where administrators say students can get hand-on training. In a move that has angered some students, the college has announced a policy in which it will hold back 100 of its 231 students and require them to take their first-year courses again, regardless of whether they passed. Another 31 students will be allowed to take courses elsewhere next year and return to the school for the 2006-07 academic year.

The college's dean, H.A. Hasan, has said the plan was crafted with informal guidance from the ACPE in order to lower the college's teacher-to-student ratio.

But the announced plan has angered some students, who say they already suffered through a turbulent year in which several faculty members left midterm. When it started, Hawaii College of Pharmacy had just five full-time faculty members and four to five part-time faculty to teach a class of 231 students, Hasan has said. Students paid $28,000 each in tuition, plus living expenses, to attend the college.

In the face of increasing tensions, the college this week suspended several students it accuses of planning to incite riots and violence at the college. The students say they were just seeking answers from the administration concerning accreditation and the policy to hold back more than half of the first-year class.

Some students have been particularly alarmed by an accreditation rule adopted earlier this year by the ACPE, the Chicago organization. Under the rule, schools seeking ACPE's accreditation must be accredited by a regional school accrediting entity, such as the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, which has jurisdiction over Hawaii.

The Western Association of Schools and Colleges requires institutions to demonstrate a broad and stringent set of criteria, including stability, an ability to enable students to attain academic achievement, strategic planning and integrity, including "timely and fair responses to complaints and grievances." As described in the association's 145-page "Handbook of Accreditation," the process takes years, beginning with a preparatory review that takes place two years after the school has submitted its proposal.

The ACPE's rule concerning regional accreditation is not as onerous as it might seem for Hawaii College of Pharmacy, Wadelin said. Because the school initially applied for accreditation before the rule was in effect, Wadelin said, the ACPE will allow the Hawaii College of Pharmacy to move through the ACPE's accreditation process without formal regional accreditation. However, Wadelin said, the school will have to be able to demonstrate that it is in the process of gaining regional accreditation.

"They wouldn't have to have" regional accreditation, Wadelin said. "They would have to be engaged in the process, however."

But to date, the Hawaii College of Pharmacy has not formally engaged with the Western Association of Schools and Colleges by applying for accreditation, a spokeswoman for the association said.

"They have not applied to us," she said. "So we have no information on them."

Hasan did not return calls for comment.

The Hawaii College of Pharmacy is a private school owned by Pacific Educational Services, a Hawaii corporation whose top officers are Denise Criswell and David Monroe. Records filed with the Nevada Secretary of State also list Criswell and Monroe as principals of Pacific Educational Services, Pacific Blue Venture Corp., Pacific Blue Educational Services and Pacific Blue Holdings Inc., Nevada corporations that share the same address in Kapolei.

The Nevada filings list former Hawaii state Sen. Jan Yagi Buen as treasurer of Pacific Blue Venture Corp., Pacific Blue Educational Services and Pacific Blue Holdings.