HILO, Hawai'i — The University of Hawai'i at Hilo has been told to improve its new Hawaiian language doctorate program or face sanctions.

The Western Association of Schools & Colleges, which accredits schools across the West, issued the warning in a June 30 letter to Hilo Chancellor Rose Tseng.

The commission plans to return to the campus in fall 2009 to check on the school's progress. Further reviews are scheduled for 2013 and 2015.

The Hawaiian language Ph.D. program was the first doctorate offered at UH-Hilo, the first doctorate in the U.S. in a Native American language, the first doctorate in the world to revitalize an indigenous language.

But the accrediting body said the program lacks a published curriculum and objective oversight.

Further, it has only three permanent faculty and four doctoral students, making stability and oversight a serious issue, the association said.

Four of the five doctoral students at the College of Hawaiian Language also hold ranks as professors in the college, leading to "obvious conflict of interest issues regarding the objectivity in evaluating the work of students who are also colleagues," the association's report said.

The Hawaiian Ph.D. is "an important new subject area" and the highest standards of quality and integrity must be applied, the commission said.

Kalena Silva, director of the College of Hawaiian Language, said the deficiencies are unique to a fledgling program that got its start in 2006 and has faced low staffing while navigating uncharted territory.

He said the school takes the deficiencies seriously and has already taken steps to address some of them.

"It's a new field. There's no Ph.D. program like it in the world," Silva said. "We don't have enough faculty now, but we've hired two Ph.D. with linguistics backgrounds, and a third will be coming from Oahu soon to help with our teacher training program. We're moving forward in this area and I think we will alleviate these concerns of WASC as we take these steps."

Silva said he did not believe there were conflicts of interest and that the commission may not have understood how the college is configured.

As for the commission's criticism the doctorate program had no published curriculum or ways to distinguish requirements from those of a master's degree, Silva said this was not as damning as it sounds.

The curriculum and requirements are in place, they just haven't been published yet. That will be addressed through publications in course catalogs and online in the coming school year, Silva said.

Silva said the doctorate is a much more rigorous degree, and Ph.D. candidates must apply their knowledge in the community, he said.

"The M.A. focuses on the study of Hawaiian literature, and it's more traditionally academic," Silva said. "The Ph.D. requires a practical component. You do work in the community to bring to life this research you've done."

The commission also found that the same people who write the curriculum also review and approve it, leading to a lack of objective oversight.

"We're not surprised WASC would raise some of these concerns, perhaps not considering that the program is new and the field is new," Silva said.

More broadly, at a university level, the commission said the roles and responsibilities of the school's cabinet, deans, faculty congress and college senates need to be more clearly spelled out.

The commission addressed concerns about decision making in a 2004 action letter. Because the school failed to resolve the matter in the years since, the association this year ordered the school to clarify its governance processes "immediately."

A university spokesman did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

On the positive side, the commission complimented the university on its new doctoral program at the College of Pharmacy.

The school received additional praise for its pursuit of outside funding, new physical infrastructure like the Student Life Center, and infusing Hawaiian knowledge into course material.