Posted on: Friday, September 10, 2004

New Hilo college delayed

By Treena Shapiro
Advertiser Education Writer

LIHUE, Kaua'i — Plans to create a new college of pharmacy at the University of Hawai'i-Hilo were postponed yesterday when the Board of Regents raised concerns over financing the project.

It would be the state's first college of pharmacy, and it calls for a startup budget of $20.4 million as well as an annual $2 million subsidy from the state.

Regents will take up the issue again next month when they meet in Hilo, giving them the opportunity to hear how the Big Island community feels about the addition as well as giving UH-Hilo the chance to demonstrate how it will finance the school.

Yesterday, UH-Hilo Chancellor Rose Tseng said the school could be supported with federal and private money and has $700,000 from the federal government for preliminary planning.

However, Regent Kitty Lagareta wanted to know more about financing.

"Where is the money going to come from?" she asked.

Tseng argued that the financial risk was minimal because if the school could not raise the money for the pharmacy building, there would be no program.

The proposed pharmacy school, which would open in 2007, would enroll 66 students, 75 percent of whom would be from Hawai'i.

The school would help meet the state's need for pharmacists, which UH-Hilo estimates at 40 a year.

By 2020 the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy anticipates an unmet need of 157,000 pharmacists.

UH-Hilo administrators did quell some concerns over why the school would be in Hilo rather than near the medical school in Honolulu.

Tseng told regents that Hilo was a logical choice since the university focuses on professional training while UH-Manoa emphasizes research.

Project director Jerry Johnson explained that students would spend the first two years studying basic science in Hilo but would finish the final two years in Honolulu where they could do clinical work alongside the medical students.

Johnson added that an advantage to locating the school in Hilo is that students would be in a country setting where pharmacists are most needed.

It's easier to convince students in a rural school to seek work in outlying areas than to convince city dwellers to move to the country, he said.

Building on that idea, Big Island Regent John Kai said it's hard to convince students who go to college on the Mainland to return to Hawai'i, and all pharmacy schools are on the Mainland.

"Once they get their education or degree up there they tend to stay up there, so we lose out," he said.

Regents were also concerned about the need for $2 million a year from the state to operate the program.

Regent Myron Yamasato asked if the school had a strategy to come up with funding if the state had a shortfall.

The only way to handle it is to raise tuition, said Arthur Nelson, an academic consultant from the Texas Tech University School of Pharmacy.

Board chairwoman Patricia Lee pointed out that the budget projections are based on an expectation the Legislature will close a loophole that allows out-of-state students to pay resident tuition after one year.

Regent Jane Tatibouet had concerns over a suggestion that one higher tuition be charged to both residents and nonresidents. That would be unfair to Hawai'i students, she said.

The only testimony came from J.N. Musto, executive director of the UH faculty union, who worried the new school might take away from existing programs, such as the UH-Hilo College of Hawaiian Language which still needs a building.

In other business:

• A committee approved spending more than $20 million for building improvements and repairs across the system. Bigger-ticket items include $1.6 million to design the renovation and expansion of UH-Manoa's Komohana Agricultural Complex on the Big Island and $1.261 million to design UH-Hilo's Student Life and Events Complex.

• A committee also approved 2005-06 audit plans, which include mandatory audits of the university's financial statements as well as programs under the UH bond system and intercollegiate athletic programs.

The full Board of Regents will meet again today on Kaua'i to consider committee action taken yesterday.