The Daniel K. Inouye College of Pharmacy will start the new school year for the first time with a full eight-year accreditation under its belt, though completion of its new building could be pushed back further into 2018.
The University of Hawaii at Hilo pharmacy school announced last week it received full accreditation from the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education for the maximum duration of eight years.
The pharmacy college was found to be “compliant” or “compliant with monitoring” in all 25 standards set by the council, which is the national accreditation body that evaluates all pharmacy colleges in the country, according to a UH-Hilo news release.
That good news comes after some past hiccups: The pharmacy school struggled for years to secure funding for a permanent building and has operated out of five temporary portable buildings since it opened in 2007.
In 2013, accreditors found the school noncompliant because there was no permanent building. The school had to complete a self-study that year followed by an on-site visit in October 2014.
Funding for the permanent building finally was approved in 2015 and the college was granted full, two-year accreditation with monitoring, which was up for reaccreditation this year.
The school’s $31.3 million permanent building is under construction, which pharmacy school dean Carolyn Ma said boded well for the school with accreditors during a site visit in March. This week, crews could be seen at the South Ahoku Street site erecting portions of the building’s first floor.
“I think they were impressed,” Ma said of the accreditors during the site visit. “… I felt very confident we would do well and I think it was just a matter of hearing it from the outside and knowing we were on the right track.
“… I won’t say I was surprised (at the eight-year accreditation), but based on the previous length of accreditation we’d received in the past, I thought maybe we would not be given full term being a new school,” she continued. “And apparently eight years is the gold standard, so I feel pretty great we measured up to that.”
The building originally was given a spring 2018 completion date, but Ma said that might be pushed back into late fall 2018. She said the delay partly stems from issues getting raw materials such as rebar because of “construction happening on Oahu with the rail and other buildings,” among other things.
“The timelines are always moving a little, they may fall back on one portion and catch up on another so trying to give a specific date is always a moving target,” Ma said. “So I think we’re probably looking at about a late-fall completion, that’s about as accurate as I can get at this point.”
The pharmacy school expects to admit between 84 and 88 students this year. Last year, it admitted 81.
Email Kirsten Johnson at kjohnson@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
